Improving data transmission with helping nodes for geographical ad hoc routing

Many routing protocols for mobile ad hoc networks assume that the node density of the network is sufficiently high that network partitions do not occur. However, in practice, this assumption is invalid since the mobility and random deployment of the nodes can easily cause partitions to take place. Therefore, this paper develops an approach for identifying suitable helping nodes to carry data packets from one partition to another during geographic routing. Unlike the assisting nodes proposed in previous schemes, the helping nodes are chosen from a group of regular mobile nodes that can move freely throughout the network. In addition, handoff procedures which may be required during the routing trip are implemented. Two mechanisms based on the approach were evaluated using network simulator 2. The evaluation results demonstrate that the algorithm successfully improves successful delivery ratio without needing special assisting nodes and only induces a little more routing overhead and energy consumption to the system.