Ring-based forwarder selection to improve packet delivery in ultra-dense networks

This paper proposes a novel protocol-agnostic approach to optimize the performance of routing protocols in ultra-dense networks through a careful selection of the forwarders in a multi-hop transmission. In an ultra-dense wireless network, nodes have hundreds of neighbours, and existing routing protocols which require neighbourhood information are unable to operate efficiently. Using our method, each node wanting to transmit first selects forwarders that fall in a ring near the border of the communication range of the transmitting node, which makes up a subset of all the node's neighbours. This significantly reduces the number of nodes contending for the wireless channel yet ensures that there are sufficient forwarders to deliver packets successfully. We validate our approach using two routing schemes, one flooding and one unicast, augmented with our forwarder selection method and applied to an electromagnetic nanonetwork scenario as a novel incarnation of ultra-dense networks. Simulations using an enhanced propagation model show that our forwarder selection method drastically reduces the number of forwarders while still allowing packets to reach the intended destinations.