Energy-Constrained Paths for Optimization of Energy Consumption in Wireless Sensor Networks

A sensor spends a large part of its energy in transmitting its data and relay its neighbours´ data. The overall lifetime of a wireless sensor network depends strongly on how a sensor selects its relaying neighbours and the data path to the destination. One critical problem is that if a sensor has to support too many neighbours, its energy is exhausted rapidly and may bring down the whole network. This paper suggests algorithms for assigning weights to links between neighbours taking into account the number of neighbours who rely on them to relay traffic to the destination. In order to do so, the paper also proposes an algorithm for constructing node connectivity based on sensors position within the broadcast range of another sensor, and a shortest energy-constrained path from a sensor to the destination.