Multi-sink routing using path loss in multihop wireless sensor networks

In large scale single-sink wireless sensor networks (WSNs), scalability of access and routing protocol becomes an issue when the number of hops to reach the sink increases. As one consequence, nodes close to the sink deplete their energy quickly and the energy consumption may not be as efficient as in the small size network. Multi-sink usage can circumvent the problem and reduce the pressure of data transfer to only one sink. Dealing with multi-sink network, however, results in many-to-many communication paradigm and thus appropriate tailoring is needed to distribute the traffic fairly. In this work, we propose to use node´s minimum path loss and sinks´ 1-hop neighbors residual energy for guiding nodes to shuffle data packets among the sinks. Using this mechanism, nodes avoid from sending data packets toward the 1-hop neighbors that are about to deplete their energy. We show via simulation that the mechanism can prolong the network lifetime and reduce the number of exhausted nodes in the network.