Intra-cluster multi-hop routing algorithm based on forwarding restriction angle in WSNs

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) differ from traditional network communication technology in many aspects, one of the key issues is the energy consumed by sensor nodes. Reducing the energy consumed by sensor nodes can be achieved by any layer in WSN protocol stack. In this paper, the problem how to reduce the communication energy consumption by optimizing routing algorithm of network layer is focused on. Based on the hierarchical network architecture, energy-efficient intra-cluster multi-hop routing algorithms based on the forwarding restriction angle are discussed. Such intra-cluster routing algorithms combine energy-based strategy and direction-based geographical strategy. On forwarding a data packet to the cluster-head, an intra-cluster common node would select the neighbor node whose forwarding restriction angle satisfies the restrictive conditions and through which the energy consumption would be reduced as the next-hop node, and the data fusion is performed in the course of forwarding. The analysis and simulation result show that our intra-cluster routing algorithms have better performance than the similar routing algorithm in terms of energy consumption and delay, they are suitable for the intra-cluster data transmission in a high-density wireless sensor network.