A Smart Collaborative Routing Protocol for QoE Enhancement in Multi-Hop Wireless Networks

Abstract

The multi-hop wireless network (MWN) is an important green communication method for the Internet of Things (IoT). However, existing routing protocols in MWN have insufficient considerations for quality of experience (QoE). In this paper, we propose a QoE enhancement routing (QER) protocol based on smart collaborative theory. First, crucial parameters which affect data transmission process are analyzed comprehensively and applications of MWN are introduced. Second, two stages of QER protocol, i.e. collaborative perception and smart decision, are designed to collect real-time network information and decide the optimal routing mechanism, respectively. Corresponding procedures are discussed in-depth with the system availability. Third, we integrate three routing mechanisms into QER and conduct a comparative analysis. Evaluation environments are created with reasonable configurations. Performance validation demonstrates that our solution is able to intelligently execute the suitable strategy. Compared with traditional protocols, QER can outperform other candidates in diverse scenarios.