Compass enhanced ORRP for wireless sensor networks

Data routing in wireless sensor networks has attracted much research interest in recent years. Orthogonal Rendezvous Routing Protocol (ORRP) [1] was recently proposed and analyzed for use in wireless mesh networks. The protocol is based on a simple idea that two pairs of orthogonal lines in a plane intersect with a high probability and it utilizes the directional antennas for creating orthogonal routing paths. This protocol is appealing for wireless sensor networks as well. However wireless sensor networks differ from wireless mesh networks in many aspects, like the number of nodes in the network, many-to-one versus many-to-many communication, random node placement, and more. In this paper we analyze the suitability of ORRP for wireless sensor networks and propose a number of modifications, like equipping wireless sensor nodes with digital compass hardware. We then show that the proposed modifications improve reachability, reduce the average length of the path from a sensor to the base station and reduce the average number of nodes involved in an event forwarding.