Distributed split-path routing strategy for multi-hop mesh networks

The concept of mesh networks brings many challenges to the research community when designing such system. In this paper, we propose a new routing model to account for the link utilization between nodes, as well as the remaining energy left in each node. The framework, called Distributed Split-path, is implemented on top of the Optimized Link-State Routing (OLSR) protocol. We demonstrate the improvement our proposed scheme offers to the longevity of the network while maintaining similar performance as the original OLSR protocol. We devise a performance indicator to show in which cases our approach benefits the network system designer, depending on the priorities of the network application. Simulation results show that by allowing a trade-off in the performance, the new model outperforms current protocol.