MEGH - A Hop Count and Energy Based Routing Protocol for Opportunistic Networking

Opportunistic Networking (OppNet) is one of the most interesting evolutions in the field of computer networking where moving devices are able to converse in the absence of a connecting route. The routes are dynamically built despite the fact that the messages are on the way between the sender and the recipient. Any potential node can be used as a relay if it brings the message closer to its destination. Such requirement makes it an interesting and highly challenging research field without any underlying predetermined network infrastructure. A novel routing protocol with the underlying concept of energy consumption is proposed, wherein the message packets are transmitted taking into consideration the node's available energy and the message hop count. Performance of the proposed protocol is then compared with the other available routing protocols to study the performance through results achieved in terms of delivery probability, overhead ratio, buffertime average, latency average and hop count average.