To solve the routing problem described in
Section 3.3, a directional-area-forwarding-based energy-efficient opportunistic routing (DEOR) for the post-disaster MIoT network is proposed, aiming to improve the energy efficiency and the data transmission reliability of the post-disaster MIoT network in the planar accident mine. The proposed DEOR algorithm mainly consists of three parts: candidate forwarding set construction, relay node selection, and void routing node recovery. Firstly, a directional-area-forwarding-based candidate forwarding set construction strategy is designed. In the initialization phase, according to the deployment density and communication radius of nodes in the accident roadway, a forwarding zone (FZ) is designed for each node to route packets toward the sink. Then, the CFS is constructed by the nodes within the FZ that satisfy the energy constraint and the neighboring node degree constraint. Subsequently, a relay nodes selection method based on routing quality evaluation is proposed. In the data transmission phase, we take multiple attributes of nodes into account, such as direction angle, transmission distance, and residual energy. All nodes in CFS are prioritized based on the routing quality evaluation and the node with the highest priority is selected as the relay to forward packets. Finally, a recovery mechanism for void nodes is designed. When packets encounter the routing void during forwarding, a recovery mechanism is triggered. By employing the modified routing quality evaluation function, packets can bypass the void region and select available relay nodes to continue forwarding. Details are described below.
4.1. Construction of Candidate Forwarding Set
In this section, we mainly provide a detailed presentation to the construction of Candidate Forwarding Set (CFS). OR utilizes multiple neighbors of the sending node to simultaneously receive and forward packets, thus improving the packet forwarding efficiency. Therefore, the construction criterion of CFS is particularly important in opportunity routing design.
In general, the size of the CFS can affect the post-disaster network performance. The larger the CFS, the more packet copies are generated, the higher packet transfer success rate, however, the waiting time of the sender will also be longer, leading to higher energy consumption and end-to-end latency. On the contrary, the smaller the CFS, the sparser the network topology, and the lower packet transfer success rate, resulting in unreliable data transmission after the disaster. To address the above issue, this paper proposes a directional-area-forwarding-based candidate forwarding set construction strategy. Here, we take the packet forwarding process from the source node ni to the sink in the post disaster network as an example to build a schematic diagram of the CFS selection of node ni, as shown in
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
Schematic diagram of CFS selection.
Figure 3.
Schematic diagram of CFS selection.
As shown in
Figure 3, it shows the selection of the CFS in proposed DEOR algorithm. It can be seen that when the accident area is certain, the size of CFS is related to the network density
. The higher the network density, the greater probability of packets being overheard and duplicated. In addition, the direction of data transmission in the accident mine is upward to the sink. In order to reduce transmission energy consumption, nodes closer to the sink should be selected as much as possible when constructing the CFS. Therefore, to restrict the number of forwarders and reduce the energy consumption, we defined a Forwarding Zone (FZ) for each node
, denoted by
, so that the packets will be routed upwards to the sink within the
. The size of the FZ is determined by the network density
, larger network density means smaller FZ and fewer forwarders, and vice versa, such that the number of forwarders can be dynamically adjusted. Here, we denote the network density
as
where the first term reflects the deployment density in the target field, the second term reflects the degree of connections between sender and other nodes. Note that,
is the sum area of
nodes,
is the size of post-disaster network,
is the communication radius of nodes,
is the area of target field, and
is the number of neighbors of
.
In
Figure 3, it can be seen that FZ is a rectangular shape with a size of
defined by four points
, where the length of FZ is the Euclidean distance from the node to the sink, i.e.,
. Obviously, the width of FZ
is related to the communication range
and the network density
. The higher the network density, the smaller the width. According to the model studied in [
35], the maximum width of FZ satisfies
. Consequently, the
is expressed as
The location of the sink denoted by
. In the network initialization phase, each node
computes the location the four points of the
using formular 5. These four points
are attached to the header of packets. Obviously, the number of forwarders can be limited according to FZ.
We define the neighbor set of
within the forwarding zone as
. In
Figure 3, the candidate zone (CZ) of each node
is defined as the intersection area between the forwarding zone
and the communication range of
. Furthermore, the set of nodes within CZ is described as
In practice, due to the harsh underground mine environment after the disaster, there still exists the problem of nodes failure at any time. Therefore, in order to void encountering void routing during packet forwarding, candidate nodes with more neighbor nodes should be selected, so that the packet transmission success rate can be improved. In addition, candidate nodes with relatively high residual energy should be selected to balance the node load and extend the network lifetime. Consequently, the node
in the CFS of node
should satisfy the formula 7 and formula 8.
where
and
represent the number of neighbor nodes of
and
, respectively, while
and
represent the residual energy of
and
, respectively.
As a result, the nodes satisfying formula 6, formula 7, and formular 8 constitute the candidate forwarding set
of
as
In this article, the constructed candidate forwarding set
restricts the number of forwarders, which contributes to reduce the waiting time of the sender. Moreover, the nodes in
have the characteristics of high energy and more neighboring nodes, which is conductive to improving the network lifetime and data transmission reliability of post-disaster MIoT. The pseudocode of the selection of candidate forwarding set is shown in Algorithm 1.
Algorithm 1: Construct the Candidate Forwarding Set |
Input: Output: The candidate forwarding set 1: for each node do 2: Define the Forwarding Zone using Eq. (5) 3: Get the subset using Eq. (6) 4: end for 5: for each node do 6: Get the subset using Eq. (7) 7: Get the subset using Eq. (8) 8: if &&&& 9: then add 10: end if 11: end for 12: if 13: then 14: switch to Algorithm 3 15: else 16: switch to Algorithm 2 17: end if
|
4.2. Selection of Relay Node
In this section, the proposed relay nodes selection method based on routing quality based on is described in detail. In opportunistic routing, the relay node is the ultimate node responsible for packets forwarding, so the selection of relay nodes will directly affect the performance of data transmission in the post-disaster MIoT. After the candidate forwarding set is determined, we need to further optimize the forwarding strategy with the goal of selecting the optimal forwarder as the next-hop relay node. Based on the system model shown in
Figure 2, aiming to reduce the energy consumption for data transmission in the post-disaster MIoT, an energy-efficient routing path should be selected from the source to the sink [
36]. Here, we design a routing quality evaluation function in DEOR for forwarders that considers three factors, including direction angle, transmission distance, and residual energy of nodes. The smaller the directional angle attribute value of the current forwarder, the closer the forwarder is to the sink, and the lower the transmission energy consumption of sensor nodes. The larger the relative distance attribute value between the sender and forwarder, the farther the transmission distance of the current forwarder is within the same communication range, which shortens the total routing path for packets forwarding, and thus reducing the transmission energy consumption of the post-disaster network. In this article, the schematic diagram of the directional angle and transmission distance between sender
and forwarder
is shown in
Figure 4. Then, nodes in CFS are prioritized based on the routing quality value. After the forwarder’s coordination, the node with the highest priority is selected as the relay to forward packets and other nodes in CFS will drop packets after listening for a successful transmission message.
Figure 4.
(a) The direction angle from to with respect to the location of the sink. (b) The transmission distance from to .
Figure 4.
(a) The direction angle from to with respect to the location of the sink. (b) The transmission distance from to .
As shown in
Figure 4 (a), the directional angle attribute of the node is considered in this paper to give higher priority to forwarders closer to the sink. The direction angle
between the sender
and the neighbor
towards the sink is expressed by formular 10, where
and
.
Figure 4(a) shows that smaller the direction angle
between the sender
and its neighbor
, closer the neighbor
is to the sink and can provide lower energy consumption for packets forwarding. To avoid the situation when
, the
is normalized into
by formular 11, where
. Then, the distribution of the direction angle
is obtained by using the mass function expressed as formular 12.
where
is the number of nodes in
,
,
is the control parameter of the direction angle factor. Note that, the larger
indicates the greater probability distribution of forwarder, which are closer to the sink being selected as relay nodes.
As shown in
Figure 4 (b), the transmission distance attribute of nodes is considered in our work to give higher priority to forwarders that are further away from the sender. This is because when the communication radius
of nodes is fixed, larger the distance between the sender
and its neighbor
means the shorter the routing path toward to the sink, thereby reducing the energy consumption for routing packets. The transmission distance
between
and
is represented by formular 13. The variable
is normalized to
by formular 14, where
. Then, the distribution of transmission distance
is obtained by using the mass function expressed as formular 15.
where
is the control parameter of the transmission distance factor. Note that, the larger
indicates the greater probability distribution of forwarder, which are closer to the sink being selected as relay nodes.
Furthermore, some network nodes can deplete energy earlier than others nodes due to undertaking more packet forwarding in data transmission. In order to balance the load of network nodes, the energy attribute of nodes is also considered in our work to give higher priority to forwarders with greater residual energy. For a forwarder
of the sender
, the residual energy
is normalized to
by formular 16. Then, the distribution of remaining energy
is obtained by using the mass function expressed as formular 17.
where
is the initial energy of
,
is the control parameter of the energy factor. Note that, the larger
indicates the greater probability distribution of forwarders, which have greater remaining energy being selected as relay nodes.
Based on the above analysis, we define the routing quality of
’s forwarder
as the product of the directional angle factor
, the transmission distance factor
and the residual energy factor
, which expressed as
by formular 18. Then, it is normalized to
by formular 19.
According to formular 19, we can deduce that the forwarder with higher routing quality has a higher chance of being selected as a relay node. Note that, these three factors are controlled by three control parameters , and , respectively, so that increasing the value of any control parameter will enhance the impact of the corresponding indicator. Normally, the control parameters are set to .
Once the CFS of the sender is determined, the number of packet replicas needs to be limited by the collaboration of candidate forwarders, ensuring that only one forwarder is selected as relay node to forward packets. In this article, the proposed relay node selection method based on routing quality evaluation determines the optimal relay node for packets forwarding, so that an energy-efficient routing path between the sender and the sink will be achieved. By utilizing the local metrics of forwarders to make routing decisions, DEOR reduces routing overhead and extends network lifetime. The schematic diagram of relay node selection is shown as
Figure 5.
Figure 5.
Schematic diagram of relay node selection.
Figure 5.
Schematic diagram of relay node selection.
According to the routing quality
value, we sort the forwarders of
in descending order, denoted as
. As we can see in
Figure 5, for the current sender
carrying packets,
is the candidate forwarding sets of
. When
needs to find the next hop, it will send a request message to all neighbors. Based on the directional angle, transmission distance and residual energy of nodes, they calculate their
value using formular 19. The sender
selects the candidate with the largest
value as the next hop. The best relay node
forwards the packets, and if the transmission is successful, other nodes
and
discard packets copies. Since
is not the destination node, it becomes the new sender and continues to select the next hop through the above process until the packet is forwarded to the sink. Finally, a complete routing path is formed in the network, denoted as
in
Figure 5. The pseudocode of the selection of relay nodes is shown in Algorithm 2.
Algorithm 2: Select the Best Relay Nodes |
Input: Output: The ID of the best relay nodes 1: for each node do 2: node receives the packets sent by node 3: Get the using Eq. (12) 4: Get the using Eq. (15) 5: Get the using Eq. (17) 6: Calculate using Eq. (19) 7: sort in descending order to 8: end for 9: select the node from the highest - 10: if forwards the packet successfully 11: then other nodes in drop the packet 12: else 13: set the node = where has lower - 14: end if 15: until the timer expired 16: if packet is not delivered to Sink 17: then 18: switch to Algorithm 1 19: end if
|
4.3. Recovery Mechanism
In this section, we describe in detail of a recovery mechanism in the proposed DEOR. The collapse of loose coal in mines after disasters and the depletion of node energy are common phenomena, which can increase the probability of void nodes being selected as relay nodes [
37]. However, although the above methods reduce the probability of selecting void nodes, it cannot completely avoid the problem of void routing. According to the
Figure 2, we assume that the routing node
of the current sender
is an invalid node, the routing recovery process of void nodes in the post-disaster MIoT network is shown in
Figure 6. By adopting the proposed recovery mechanism, the current void node
can quickly find the optimal relay recovery node
on the reverse routing path towards the sink, thereby bypassing the void area and improving the packet delivery rate of post-disaster network data transmission.
Figure 6.
Schematic diagram of recovery mechanism.
Figure 6.
Schematic diagram of recovery mechanism.
In
Figure 6, if relay node
of sender
is a void node, no neighbors in upward path to sink can forward packets, i.e., the candidate forwarders set
obtained according to Algorithm 1 is empty. Here, we denote the set of neighbor nodes of the void node
as
, its subset of neighbors
in downward path can be defined as
where
is the neighbor of void node
,
represents the Euclidean distance from
to the sink.
Similar to formular 8, in order to ensure load balancing and energy conservation in the post-disaster network, nodes with higher residual energy should be selected. Hence, the subset
of
nj’s neighbors that satisfy energy constraints is denoted as
Combining formular 20 and formular 21, the candidate recovery node set
of void node
can be defined as
Unlike the routing method described in
Section 4.2, when an invalid node
selects a recovery relay node in downward path to the sink, it will consume more energy to forward packets to nodes at greater distances. Therefore, the neighbor node with a smaller transmission distance difference from the void node should be selected as the recovery relay node. Consequently, in the recovery mechanism, formula 15 and formular 19 should be rewritten as
where
is the number of candidate forwarders of void node
.
Once the void node forwards packets to a normal routing node, it exits the recovery mechanism and continues to route packets to the sink, as described in
Section 4.1 and
Section 4.2. In the recovery mechanism, nodes will record the ID of the previous hop node, and these nodes will not be repeatedly selected when selecting the recovery relay node, thus avoiding routing loops. By utilizing the updated routing quality assessment, void nodes can select appropriate recovery relay nodes downward in the planar accident mine, thereby effectively restoring the transmission path. The pseudocode of the recovery mechanism is shown in Algorithm 3.
Algorithm 3: Recovery Mechanism of Void Nodes |
Input: Output: The candidate recovery forwarding set 1: for each node do 2: Get the subset using Eq. (20) 3: Get the subset using Eq. (21) 4: if 5: then add 6: 7: end if 8: end for 9: switch to Algorithm 2
|
4.4. Analysis and Flowchart of DEOR
According to the pseudocode of the three sub-algorithms, the DEOR algorithm mainly consists of a cycle in the calculation process, so the computational complexity of the proposed DEOR in this paper is , where is the number of nodes in the network. The energy consumption in DEOR entirely depends on how many nodes in the sender’s forwarding zone. For the post-disaster MIoT network, this complexity is usually within the computing capacity of nodes, and the proposed DEOR is an energy-saving routing strategy. Therefore, the surviving nodes have the ability to execute the DEOR algorithm, which restricts the number of duplicate packets generated in the network and avoids routing void problem during data transmission.
The proposed DEOR is an opportunistic routing algorithm that considers both global and local information of the network. Nodes make routing decisions based on network density and multiple attributes of neighboring nodes. The flowchart of DEOR is shown as
Figure 7. Firstly, during the network initialization phase, each node defines a forwarding area based on the current network density. Then, the sender constructs a candidate forwarding set (CFS) according to the candidate region constraint, energy constraint, and neighboring node degree constraint. If the CFS is empty, the recovery mechanism is activated. Next, the nodes within the CFS calculate their routing quality
values, and be sorted in descending order to
. The nodes in
are selected in sequence as relay nodes to forward the packets before the timer expires, otherwise the data transmission fails. Finally, if any node in CFS successfully forwards the packet, the other nodes will discard the packet copies and loop the above process until the packet is routed to the sink.
Figure 7.
Flowchart of the proposed DEOR.
Figure 7.
Flowchart of the proposed DEOR.