Opportunistic Routing Algorithm for Relay Node Selection in Wireless Sensor Networks

Energy savings optimization becomes one of the major concerns in the wireless sensor network (WSN) routing protocol design, due to the fact that most sensor nodes are equipped with the limited nonrechargeable battery power. In this paper, we focus on minimizing energy consumption and maximizing network lifetime for data relay in one-dimensional (1-D) queue network. Following the principle of opportunistic routing theory, multihop relay decision to optimize the network energy efficiency is made based on the differences among sensor nodes, in terms of both their distance to sink and the residual energy of each other. Specifically, an Energy Saving via Opportunistic Routing (ENS_OR) algorithm is designed to ensure minimum power cost during data relay and protect the nodes with relatively low residual energy. Extensive simulations and real testbed results show that the proposed solution ENS_OR can significantly improve the network performance on energy saving and wireless connectivity in comparison with other existing WSN routing schemes.