An energy-aware routing scheme based on a virtual relay tunnel in flying ad hoc networks

Flying ad hoc networks (FANETs) tackle diverse challenges, for example, dynamic topological structure, high mobility of nodes, low density, and energy restrictions. These challenges make problems in designing reliable and stable routing in FANETs. Hence, the design of a routing algorithm is essential for transferring data between drones. In this paper, an energy-aware routing scheme based on a virtual relay tunnel (EARVRT) is proposed in flying ad hoc networks. EARVRT includes a virtual relay tunnel (VRT) that manages relay nodes in the route discovery process and lowers network overhead. Moreover, three metrics, namely route energy, hop counts, and a new metric called path correlation are regarded in the path selection operation. Note that correlation is defined with regard to two scales, including the cosine similarity of two nodes and their distance. EARVRT is evaluated according to delay, network longevity, consumed energy, and packet delivery rate. Then, our scheme is compared with three methods, namely LoCaL, O-LAR, and PSO-GLFR. These results show the superiority and success of EARVRT in comparison with other algorithms.