A Cooperative Learning Scheme for Energy Efficient Routing in Wireless Sensor Networks

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) are gaining more interest in variety of applications. Of their different characteristics and challenges, network lifetime and efficiency are the most considered issues in WSN-based systems. The scarcest WSN´s resource is energy, and one of the most energy-expensive operations is route discovery and data transmission. This paper presents a novel design of a cooperative nodes learning scheme for cooperative energy-efficient routing (CEERA) in wireless sensor networks. In CEERA, nodes perform a cooperative learning in delivering data to the base station. The retransmission of packets is controlled through an address-based timer. CEERA achieves overhead reduction and energy conservation by controlling various parameters that affect the overall network efficiency. Performance results are evaluated using NS2 simulator and our own implemented event-driven simulation. The simulation results show that our algorithm minimizes the overall energy consumption of the WSN, extends network operational lifetime, and improves network efficiency and throughput.