Pareto optimal cross layer lifetime optimization for Disaster Response Networks

Disaster Response Networks (DRNs) are designed to assist first responders during the recovery period following a large scale disaster. The system lifetime of deployed DRNs is critical to successful recovery, as are performance metrics such as packet delivery delay. In this paper we investigate the Pareto front between system performance and system energy consumption in such DRNs. The latter is further reduced compared to state of art methods by accepting the least possible performance penalty as a tradeoff. We observe that not all nodes in the network may consume or produce data; such relay nodes can be excluded from the routing process to save energy, but at the cost of decreased system performance. The problem is formulated mathematically using Raven as the underlying routing protocol. The Nondominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm II (NSGA-II) is used to obtain the Pareto-optimal points, and the DRN is made to operate at these points. Extensive performance evaluations demonstrate that a 162 minute increase in system lifetime is possible for a 61 minute increase in the packet delivery delay, while the packet delivery ratio remains almost constant.