Distance and Cooperation Based Broadcast in Wireless Ad Hoc Networks

Broadcasting is one of common data dissemination techniques in wireless ad hoc networks. Thus, it is critical to improve the broadcast efficiency. Flooding, which is simple but has reliable coverage, results in high broadcast redundancy, channel contending and message collision when the network is densely distributed. In this paper, a new broadcast algorithm named as distance and cooperation based broadcast (DCBB) is proposed. In DCBB, four neighbor nodes at most are determined to forward broadcast packets based on the number of neighbors and the distance between neighbors. Redundancy can be reduced by limiting the number of relay nodes. And, through the time-division forwarding scheme, channel contending is reduced and the network utilization is improved effectively. Moreover, due to the limited number of relay nodes, DCBB saves energy of nodes and prolongs the network lifetime. The simulation results show that DCBB achieves higher reachability and lower retransmitted ratio compared to dynamic probabilistic broadcasting algorithms (DP). Meanwhile, the average maximum end-to-end delay is significantly decreased. Therefore, DCBB is applicable to densely distributed network environment.