An application-specific routing algorithm to maximize flow-lifetime in sensor networks

Energy efficient routing has been well investigated with the goal of maximizing the network lifetime, which is usually defined as the time the first node dies. Once a node is dead, data transmissions in the network are assumed to fail. In this paper, we present a novel application-specific energy-efficient routing algorithm to maximize the lifetime of application flows in wireless sensor networks. We consider the network remains alive as long as the energy can maintain the flows of the application traffic even if some nodes run out of battery. First, we formulate the routing problem as a linear programming problem, which can be converted to a max-min fairness problem. Second, the lifetime of a path is evaluated by analyzing link metrics including residual energy, transmission rate, and link distance. Third, a heuristic routing algorithm is proposed to compute the best route which minimizes the cost of application flows. Simulation results have shown that our routing algorithm can prolong the flows lifetime around 10%.