EETRNRP: Energy efficient two relay node routing protocol for sensor networks

The main goal of hierarchical routing is the energy efficiency to achieve longer network lifespan; however an issue of unbalanced power dissipation is present in almost all algorithms. In single hop routing energy consumption rate is different for cluster heads and those deployed at a large distance from the base station (BS) will deplete their energy faster. Even in multi hop case, the cluster heads (CHs) close to the BS will die earlier because they are used as intermediate nodes by other cluster heads. This phenomena leads to unbalanced energy consumption also called the “hot spot problem”. Cluster heads in hot spot area dissipate their energy faster and result in network partitioning, thus shorten network functional time. This paper proposes an “Energy Efficient Two Relay Node Routing Protocol” (EETRNRP) for clustered networks. It introduces two high energy relay nodes in a cluster for communication within a cluster and among different clusters. The results of numerical simulation show that EETRNRP provides better utilization of constrained energy resources, thus increases the stability period and can extend the life span of the network compared to SEP protocol.