Cooperative multipath routing in wireless sensor networks

Abstract

A novel multipath routing protocol for wireless sensor networks is proposed. The protocol constructs multiple paths based on residual energy of the nodes in the network and allows the source node to make energy based decisions to select a path for data transmission from the set of discovered paths. Using alternative paths for routing data packets incorporates load balancing in the network which maximizes network lifetime and minimizes energy consumption. The results show that the proposed algorithm has lower residual energy (84%, 78%, and 60% less) and longer network lifetime (394%, 195%, and 105%) than directed diffusion and its variants.