Energy Efficient Cognitive Unicast Routing for Wireless Sensor Networks

Survivability is crucial in Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) especially when they are used for monitoring and tracking applications with limited available resources. In this paper we are proposing the use of an energy Efficient Cognitive Unicast Routing (ECUR) protocol that tries to keep a balance between the energy consumption and the packet delay in a WSN. The proposed routing protocol has a next node selection criterion to change the routing path dynamically following the network conditions and the channel availability while the energy consumption per node is also considered. Simulation results are presented that show an increase in network lifetime of up to 30% compared with geographic opportunistic routing while the packet delay remains similar.