Scalable energy efficient routing mechanism prolonging network lifetime in wireless sensor networks

Due to the tiny size, nodes in a wireless sensor network (WSN) are restricted in battery capacity. As a result, a node and in turn a network of such nodes is not operational for a long time. Further, in some hostile area, battery cannot be replaced easily once deployed. Therefore, an energy conservation scheme or algorithm is needed to prolong the network lifetime. In this paper, an energy efficient routing scheme (EERS) is proposed and evaluated. This scheme extends the lifetime of network by selecting the finest shortest path to transmit data packets to the destined nodes. EERS selects a path/quality link over which it has minimum number of hops with maximum remaining energy over that path. Proposed scheme EERS is compared with other existing schemes for different parameters and varying size of network (1001,000 nodes). The simulation results shows that the EERS scheme prolongs the network lifetime 10%-15% as compared to other considered schemes. EERS also minimises the delay for transmitting data packets and increases the packet delivery ratio.