An Online Energy-Efficient Routing Protocol With Traffic Load Prospects in Wireless Sensor Networks

In wireless sensor networks, many routing algorithms are designed to implement energy-efficient mechanisms. Among those, some focus on maximising an important performance index called network lifetime, which is the number of messages successfully delivered in the network before a failure. In this paper, the authors propose a new online algorithm taking the goal of prolonging network lifetime. When making routing decisions, the algorithm, named Traffic-Aware Energy Efficient (TAEE) routing protocol, utilises prospective traffic load information for further load balance, in addition to power-related metrics used in an enhanced cost function in calculating least cost paths.