We explore the idea of using relay nodes with controllable mobility as intermediate hops for reducing the power consumption in a mobile ad hoc network (MANET). We formulate the relay positioning problem and propose four variations of a simple algorithm to compute the optimal position and the movement of the relay nodes. Results from a preliminary simulation study indicate that deployment of relay nodes does result in considerable power savings in MANETs.
Eashwar R. Chittimalla, Aravindhan Venkateswaran,