An energy-balanced loop-free routing protocol for distributed wireless sensor networks

To prolong the network lifespan, the energy-balanced routing algorithm builds its routes based on a weighted sum of node's depth, residual energy and energy density. It is a pity that this algorithm introduces routing loops and redundant hops, which result in end-to-end delay and consuming more energy. More seriously, packets cannot reach the sink. In this paper, to avoid routing loop and redundancy, a novel next-hop selection method is proposed, moreover, the routing loop and redundant hops detection and elimination mechanism have been built up. Theoretical analysis and simulation experiments show that the network lifespan is stretched by 68.72% and 24.65% compared with minimum hop routing and energy-balanced routing protocol EBRP separately.