Routing in Outer Space: Improved Security and Energy-Efficiency in Multi-Hop Wireless Networks

TL;DR

This paper introduces 'routing in outer space,' a novel routing mechanism that improves security and energy efficiency in multi-hop wireless networks by evenly distributing relay responsibilities and avoiding congested areas.

Contribution

It presents a new routing approach that transforms existing protocols to ensure uniform message relaying, reducing congestion and security vulnerabilities while extending network lifespan.

Findings

Eliminates congested areas in the network.

Enhances security by avoiding critical congestion zones.

Increases overall network longevity despite higher energy use.

Abstract

In this paper we consider security-related and energy-efficiency issues in multi-hop wireless networks. We start our work from the observation, known in the literature, that shortest path routing creates congested areas in multi-hop wireless networks. These areas are critical--they generate both security and energy efficiency issues. We attack these problems and set out routing in outer space, a new routing mechanism that transforms any shortest path routing protocol (or approximated versions of it) into a new protocol that, in case of uniform traffic, guarantees that every node of the network is responsible for relaying the same number of messages, on expectation. We can show that a network that uses routing in outer space does not have congested areas, does not have the associated security-related issues, does not encourage selfish positioning, and, in spite of using more energy globally, lives longer of the same network using the original routing protocol.