Energy-aware multipath routing for data aggregation in wireless sensor networks

Data aggregation in wireless sensor networks is widely used to collect data in an energy efficient manner to eliminate redundant data transmission so that prolong the network lifetime. To meet the data aggregation needs in wireless sensor networks, this paper proposes a novel multi-path routing algorithm, called EAD, to process in-network data aggregation. For each sensor on the routing paths, EAD evaluates its neighbors based on the residual energy, deviation angle and distance, and selects the k neighbors with the minimal evaluation costs as its forwarding nodes in order to balance energy consumption of the wireless sensor network on the premise of ensuring the reliability and performance. Simulation results show that EAD can effectively prolong network lifetime, reduce latency and ensure the reliability by adjusting the weight of each influencing factor.