Routing in Wireless Sensor Networks: An approach using Stackelberg games

Due to the limited transmit power and other constraints, the transmission of data between two nodes in a Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) may have to be accomplished with the help of one or multiple relay nodes. Game theory has been proven very useful for accurately modeling the underlying strategic interactions between the sensor nodes and for providing the relays with incentives to forward the other nodes´ data. In the present paper, we study a class of such games played at the network layer among a set of relay nodes and the source-destination pair. We formulate the source routing problem using a Stackelberg game framework. The Stackelberg equilibrium strategies derived from our game define the expected performance of the network under different traffic conditions, and motivate an efficient routing protocol design for this type of wireless networks. Different network configurations are studied to illustrate the effectiveness of our game theoretic approach.