Channel aware fuzzy logic hop selection for wireless sensor networks

Throughput and energy efficiency are two important parameters to evaluate the performance of a wireless sensor network (WSN). For WSNs involved in varying channel conditions packet transmission reliability can be affected. This results in increased number of retransmissions and therefore energy consumption, with low throughput. Making optimal choices for robust packet transmission in this scenario is vital. For the purpose of this study a fuzzy logic system (FLS) is used as the decision mechanism for hop node selection. Both signal to noise ratio (SNR) and outage probability (Pout) are chosen parameters for the FLS, to decide upon hop node selection for reliable packet forwarding. Simulation results show that the proposed FLS does indeed provide advantages in improving on transmission reliability and energy efficiency performance, when operating in varying channel conditions.