A grid-based reliable multi-hop routing protocol for energy-efficient wireless sensor networks

What is it about?

Due to the limited energy and the non-equivalence of wireless sensor network nodes, it is imperative to reduce and rationally use the energy consumption of the nodes to prolong the network lifetime. Clustering routing algorithm can address the problem efficiently. In this article, a grid-based reliable multi-hop routing approach for wireless sensor networks is proposed. In order to minimize and balance the energy consumption, our proposed protocol, grid-based reliable multi-hop routing protocol, optimizes the cluster head election process by combining individual ability which consists of node’s residual energy and node’s location, and local cognition which can balance energy consumption among clusters via a consultative mechanism based on cluster head’s lifetime expectancy, while considering data forwarding delay and reliable transmission of data. Simulation results show that grid-based reliable multi-hop routing protocol has improved stability period as compared to other protocols. Meanwhile, grid-based reliable multi-hop routing protocol has better performance in energy efficiency, data forwarding delay, and reliable transmission of data.

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Why is it important?

The main contributions of this article can be summarized as follows: 1. We propose a grid-based partition method for division of wireless sensor networks. GRMRP divides the monitoring area into several virtual grids (clusters) according to monitoring scene scale and node communication range, and all nodes in each grid cooperate with each other to collect data and transmit data to the sink until wireless sensor network fails to work. 2. Considering the significant node redundancy, GRMRP divides virtual grid into several basic cover units by comparing the size of grid and the communication range of sensor nodes, and just keeps only one node stay in active state and other nodes go to sleep while still maintaining coverage and connectivity. 3. We propose an ET-CHE method, using proactive round-robin rotation strategy when the energy level of cluster head is lower than the average energy level in the cluster and passive adjustment strategy when the cluster head receives feedback from the relay node, to optimize the energy dissipation among nodes in all basic cover units. 4. In order to balance energy dissipation among clusters and avoid the premature emergence of Energy Hole which is introduced by the unreasonable distribution of traffic load between source nodes and relay nodes, we design a bilateral consultative mechanism based on lifetimeforecast (BCM-LF). In order to determine the energy state of adjacent cluster, cluster head first selects the optimal adjacent relay node and then reselects the best forward node from other neighbors when the cluster head received negative feedback message. The performance of the proposed protocol is evaluated with two models using MATLAB simulations. The first model uses a single indicator evaluation and the second adopts a comprehensive index model which can effectively make up the one-sided nature of the single index evaluation model. In comparison with existing data gathering protocols, our approach achieves better performance such as less latency, less energy consumption, better throughput, and high reliability which provides better quality-of-service (QoS) along with the extending of network lifetime.

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