Reliable grouping GAF algorithm using hexagonal virtual cell structure

Energy consumption and routing fidelity are two of the most concerns in developing protocols and algorithms for wireless sensor networks. GAF is one of the most popular algorithms which can not only conserve energy but also keep the routing fidelity. GAF conserves energy by using geographic location information to identify the equivalence between nodes and then turn off their radio accordingly. However, the grid based equivalence is not consistent with the true radio diffusion nature so that the efficiency is not good enough. In this paper, analyses on the virtual grid structures are discussed and a new grouping GAF algorithm using hexagonal virtual cell is then proposed. Ideally, the proposed algorithm wakes up only 51.96% of nodes that GAF does without losing any network connectivity. Simulation results show that only 50.69% nodes have to be kept awaked comparing to GAF with only additional 1.16% packet delay.