On the Broadcast Storm Problems of Routing in Wireless Sensor Networks: A Cross-Layer Design

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) normally consist of large number of sensing nodes that organize themselves into multi-hop wireless networks. It is desirable for communication protocols to minimize the communication overhead and hence the energy consumption while keeping the data delivery relatively reliable. In this paper, we present a new routing protocol, called cross-layer AODV (CAODV), based on a cross-layer design and Ad hoc on-demand distance vector (AODV) routing protocol. The proposed protocol adopts two mechanisms, called delaying transmission (DT) and efficient broadcasting (EB), to address the broadcast storm problems in WSNs such as high probability of collisions and redundancy of broadcasting. Simulation results show that CAODV can improve the performance of the routing protocol in WSNs by reducing the routing overhead and the latency of route discovery without degrading the packet delivery ratio.