A Proactive Energy-Awareness Based Traffic Routing in Tree Topology Wireless Sensor Networks Precluding Energy Holes Formation

Abstract

A single tree topology is a commonly employed topology for wireless sensor networks (WSN) to connect sensors to one or more remote gateways. However, its many-to-one traffic routing pattern imposes heavy burden on downstream nodes, as the same routes are repeatedly used for packet transfer, from one or more upstream branches. The challenge is how to choose the most optimal routing paths that minimizes energy consumption across the entire network. This paper proposes a proactive energy awareness-based many-to-one traffic routing scheme to alleviate the above said problem referred to as Energy Balance-Based Energy Hole Alleviation in tree topology (EBEHA-T). This protocol combines updated status of variations in energy consumption pattern around sink-hole zones and distribution of joint nodes among the trees. With this approach, EBEHA-T proactively prevents sink-hole formation instead of just a reactive response after they have occurred. Performance evaluation of EBEHA-T against benchmark method RaSMaLai shows increased energy saving across the entire network and a marked improvement in energy consumption balance in energy-hole zones. This precludes energy hole formation and the consequent network partitioning, leading to improved network lifetime beyond that of the RasMaLai. OMNET++ network simulation software has been used for the evaluation.

A novel scheme for mitigation of energy hole problem in wireless sensor network for military application

“…Cooperative transmission is also helpful in improving spectrum efficiency 11 . Also choosing an optimal routing path that will minimize the energy consumption is a challenging task 12 . A clustering algorithm is the most energy‐efficient routing scheme adopted for multi‐hop communication, where group of nodes form the cluster.…”

“…11 Also choosing an optimal routing path that will minimize the energy consumption is a challenging task. 12 A clustering algorithm is the most energy-efficient routing scheme adopted for multi-hop communication, where group of nodes form the cluster. Each cluster is regulated by a cluster head (CH).…”