Performance assessment of a class of cross-layer optimized protocols for geographic routing in WSNs

Geographic routing is a promising solution for data forwarding in power-constrained ad-hoc networks. Such protocols are especially attractive for wireless sensor networks as they can be operated without a central control and are scalable to an arbitrary number of nodes. In this work, we present a class of geographic routing algorithms that enhance energy-efficiency by means of a cross-layer design that incorporates PHY/MAC functions such as on-demand cooperative relaying and leapfrogging. The performance of these protocols is evaluated by means of OMNET++ simulations. Significant improvements are shown in terms of packet delivery ratio, latency and connectivity for different network topologies.