Hierarchical routing concept for small world wireless networks

A hierarchical routing concept with key enabling mechanisms: hierarchical neighbor and route discovery, network optimization and service discovery, are provided and evaluated in this paper. The hierarchical routing concept is novel in the sense that both physical neighbors and logical neighbors are discovered to optimize the route and service discovery process as well as enable optimization of the network by means of the wireless short-cuts. Simulation results indicate that the number of physical hops increases the average neighbor discovery delay and the message losses in the radio channel increases variance in the delays. The service discovery delay was in feasible level in the simulated topology and the lost of messages in the wireless channels causes undiscovered services unless reliable delivery services is not provided by communication layer for the services layer. The measured performance of simulated service use indicates that the establishment of wireless short-cuts can be very useful, because it decreases the number of intermediate hops, makes end to end delay shorter and improves throughput.