WCDS‐DCR: an energy‐efficient data‐centric routing scheme for wireless sensor networks

Abstract

Abstract Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) typically consist of a large number of battery‐constrained sensors often deployed in harsh environments with little to no human control, thereby necessitating scalable and energy‐efficient techniques. This paper proposes a scalable and energy‐efficient routing scheme, called WCDS‐DCR, suitable for these WSNs. WCDS‐DCR is a fully distributed, data‐centric, routing technique that makes use of an underlying clustering structure induced by the construction of WCDS (Weakly Connected Dominating Set) to prolong network lifetime. It aims at extending network lifetime through the use of data aggregation (based on the elimination of redundant data packets) by some particular nodes. It also utilizes both the energy availability information and the distances (in number of hops) from sensors to the sink in order to make hop‐by‐hop, energy‐aware, routing decisions. Simulation results show that our solution is scalable, and outperforms existing schemes in terms of network lifetime. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.