Implementing Energetically Sustainable Routing Algorithms for Autonomous WSNs

Energy harvesting technologies make it possible to exploit environmental power to realize autonomous wireless sensor networks with unlimited lifetime. However, the actual autonomy of a wireless network depends on the energetic sustainability of its workload that depends, on its turn, on the algorithms adopted to route packets from the sensor nodes to the sink. A theoretical framework for assessing and optimizing the energetic sustainability of routing algorithms has been recently proposed. In this paper we discuss the actual applicability of optimal energetically sustainable routing algorithms and the issues raised by non-stationary environmental conditions. Furthermore, we present a distributed algorithm, running on sensor nodes, that is able to re-compute optimal routing tables on the field in order to adapt to the actual distribution of environmental power.