A novel cooperative routing algorithm based on “Gravitation” in wireless networks

Cooperative communication is a promising technique that can improve network capacity in multi-hop wireless networks. There has been considerable researches on using cooperative transmission to improve physical layer performance; studies have focused on improving bit error rate (BER), throughput, and spectral efficiency. To meet requirements at higher layers, researchers have begun to present cooperative routing protocols that combine routing technology of network layer and cooperative communication of physical layer. Conventional cooperative routing protocols are designed to improve transmission reliability under circumstance of meeting stringent quality of service (QoS) guarantees. To reduce error transmission probability and improve throughput performance, this paper proposes a cooperative routing algorithm based on “Gravitation” and network node importance, namely GNNI-CR. We optimize the topology of wireless networks by utilizing the “Gravitation” between network nodes. We also propose a routing selection scheme based on betweenness centrality in complex networks. To improve reliability, location information is used for selecting a relay to cooperate with the transmitting route. Simulation results reveal that, compared with existing routing algorithms, GNNI-CR can provide a 40 percent improvement in throughput and significantly reduce error transmission probability.