Priority-based Routing for Solar-Powered Wireless Sensor Networks

Rapid advances in wireless sensor networks require routing protocols which can accommodate new types of power source and data of differing priorities. We describe a priority-based geographical routing scheme based on a solar-cell energy model. It exploits an algorithm (APOLLO) that periodically and locally determines the topological knowledge range of each node, based on an estimated energy budget for the following period which includes the current energy, the predicted energy consumption, and the energy expected from the solar cell. The second algorithm (PISA) runs on each node and uses its knowledge range to determine a route which meets the objectives of each priority level in terms of path delay and energy consumption. These algorithms maximize scalability and minimize memory requirements by employing a localized geographical routing method which only uses information about a node and its adjacent neighbors