MuMHR: Multi-path, Multi-hop Hierarchical Routing

This paper proposes a self-organizing, cluster based protocol - multi-path, multi-hop hierarchical routing (MuMHR) - for use in large scale, distributed wireless sensor networks (WSN). With MuMHR, robustness is achieved by each node learning multiple paths and election of cluster-head backup node(s). Energy expenditure is reduced by shortening the distance between the node and its cluster-head and by reducing the setup communication overhead. This is done through incorporating the number-of-hops metric in addition to the back-off waiting time. Simulation results show that MuMHR performs better than LEACH, which is the most promising hierarchical routing algorithm to date; MuMHR reduces the total number of set-up messages by up to 65% and enhances the data delivery ratio by up to 0.83.