Biased random algorithm for load balancing in Wireless Sensor Networks (BRALB)

A Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) consists of large number of small, inexpensive nodes that depend on their sensors, transmission and routing capabilities to collect and disseminate critical data. The energy consumption is a key design criterion for WSN routing algorithms due to the limited availability of energy within network nodes. Hence, energy-efficient routing mechanism is one of the most critical issues in WSNs. In this paper a Biased Random Algorithm for Load Balancing (BRALB) in Wireless Sensor Networks for environment monitoring is proposed. It is based on energy biased random walk. It does not require any global information. It uses probability theory to acquire all the information it needs to route packets based on energy resources in each node. It is shown in this paper by using both simulation that BRALB uses the same energy as the shortest path first routing in cases where the message to be sent is comparatively small in size, with the inquiry message among the neighbors. It is also shown to balance the load (i.e. the packets to be sent) among the neighboring nodes.