On energy efficient routing for wireless sensor networks

The design of energy-efficient protocols for wireless sensor networks (WSNs) is a crucial problem as energy is a stringent resource in these networks. In this paper, we propose an energy-aware routing protocol using a new approach. To be more specific, we present a protocol called high power short distance protocol (HPSD). HPSD is a node-based protocol that selects the route to the base station (BS) based on the closest node that has the highest battery power relative to its surrounding neighbors. Thus, the energy load can be distributed among all sensor nodes instead of using certain path each time. As such, HPSD can increase the life time of the network. We simulate the performance of HPSD and compare it to other routing protocols for WSNs. Our results show that albeit being simple, HPSD proved to be a very efficient routing protocol in terms of increasing the life time of the network. Moreover, simulation results show that HPSD can efficiently adapt routes to the nodes available power.