Dijkstra-based localized multicast routing in Wireless Sensor Networks

Limited resources in Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) are the key concern that needs to be given a careful consideration when studying virtually any aspect of a sensor network. Therefore, energy demands and radio bandwidth utilization should be addressed, especially in one-to-many communication. To define the problem, this article presents and categorizes the most common WSN multicast procedures depending on the way a target group is identified by the means of geographic position. It is evident that a need for centralized network-wide topology knowledge can jeopardize scarce energy resources of a sensor network. Thus, localized geographic multicast relies solely on locally available information about the position of current node, other nodes within the radio range and the location of destination group members. Greedy multicast routing procedures often transport messages along paths that may be far from being optimal. Therefore, Dijkstra-based Localized Energy-Efficient Multicast Algorithm (DLEMA) is introduced. DLEMA focuses on discovering energy shortest paths leading through nodes that provide maximum geographical advance towards desired destinations. The analysis of the simulation results confirms interesting characteristics of the proposed algorithm.