Joint maximum lifetime and robust routing for wireless sensor networks

Since the energy constraint is a fundamental issue for wireless sensor networks (WSNs), the expectation of network lifetime has become a critical performance index. In actual applications, due to the data traffics may fluctuate randomly, there is a compelling need for a routing strategy that is robust to the variation amplitude of time varied data traffics. In this paper, we jointly consider the lifetime maximization and a routing strategy with robustness, both of which are in compliance with the framework of cross-layer optimization. These two correlated subproblems can be further modeled as a nonlinear optimization problem. By using the risk measures defined in the financial mathematics, the proposed optimization problem can be relaxed while the non-convex constraint can be transformed into a solvable expression. Extensive Simulation results are further provided to validate our robust routing proposal.