A Chain-Based Routing Protocol to Maximize the Lifetime of Wireless Sensor Networks

Mourad Hadjila, Hervé Guyennet, Mohammed Feham

LIFC UFR ST, Besan?on Cedex, France.
Tlemcen STIC Laboratory, Abou-Bakr Belka?d University, Tlemcen, Algeria.

DOI: 10.4236/wsn.2013.55014                

Abstract

Energy conservation is a key issue in the design of systems based on wireless sensor networks. Clustering routing protocols have been developed in order to reduce the network traffic toward the sink and therefore prolong the network lifetime. An alternative of clustering is to build chains instead of clusters. In this context, we propose a routing protocol for Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN). It is based on constructing multiple chains in the direction of the sink. The first node of each chain sends data to the closest node in the same chain. This latter collects, aggregates and transmits data to the next closest node. This process repeats until reaching the last node, which aggregates and transmits data directly to the sink. An improvement of this approach is proposed. It works as follows: In addition to forming multiple chains as previously, it constructs a main chain, which includes leader node of each chain. Since, initially all main chain nodes have the same amount of power, the nearest node to the sink aggregates data from others then transmits it to the sink. In the next transmission, main chain node having the higher residual energy performs this task. Compared with the first approach, simulation results show that improvement approach consumes less energy and effectively extends the network lifetime.

Keywords

Wireless Sensor Networks; Chain; Energy Conservation; Lifetime

1. Introduction

Today, progress in the field of microelectronics and wireless communication technologies is used to create small systems communicating with sensors at a reasonable cost [1]. These communicating micro-components are called sensors. These technological advances make possible the deployment of wireless sensor networks. A Wireless Sensor Network [2] is a set of communicating nodes, each consisting of four entities: a radio module for exchanging messages via the wireless medium, one or more sensors/actuators with a specific task, such as motion detection or the activation of a contact, a microcontroller responsible for needed processing, and an energy source which supplies the whole. The wireless sensor networks are increasingly deployed randomly or in deterministic way in various areas covering military applications such as target tracking, monitoring of wild animals in the forest, habitat monitoring, industrial applications, earth movement detection, healthcare applications, surveillance and so on [2]. This technology must offer autonomous solutions, that is to say, capable of saving energy and self-configuring. This makes it more attractive because these concepts do not apply to wired networks or even most solutions.

Figure 1 shows a typical architecture of a network of wireless sensors [3]. The data collected by sensors are fed directly or via other sensors to a collection point called base station or sink. This network communicates to a network of another type that leads to unit control system. The intermediate network used to deport the checkpoint from the place of deployment of the sensor

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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