A topology management protocol with bounded delay for Wireless Sensor Networks

In wireless sensor networks (WSNs) used in monitoring applications, the need to provide real-time traffic with an appropriate QoS typically clashes with the energy consumption constraints of the nodes, which have to work for long periods without the possibility of replacing their batteries. When both energy and QoS constraints are present, the role of topology control mechanisms is fundamental. This paper presents a topology control protocol to support energy-efficient real-time communication over WSNs. The aim of this work is to provide bounded delay for data traffic while reducing the energy consumption of the nodes. Detailed description of the protocol is given and both analytical and simulation results are presented that show the effects of our topology control protocol in terms of reduced energy consumption, increased network capacity and reduced packet loss rate.