Variable bit rate flow routing in wireless sensor networks

Since energy constraint is a fundamental issue for wireless sensor networks, network lifetime performance has become a key performance metric for such networks. In this paper, we consider a two-tier wireless sensor network and focus on the flow routing problem for the upper tier aggregation and forwarding nodes (AFNs). Specifically, we are interested in how to perform flow routing among the nodes when the bit rate from each source node is time-varying. We present an algorithm that can be used to construct a flow routing solution with the following properties: (1) If the average rate from each source node is known a priori, then flow routing solution obtained via such algorithm is optimal and offers provably maximum network lifetime performance; (2) If the average rate of each source node is unknown but is within a fraction (epsiv) of an estimated rate value, then network lifetime by the proposed flow routing solution is within 2epsiv/1-epsiv from the optimum. These results fill in an important gap in theoretical foundation for flow routing in energy-constrained sensor networks.