e3D: an energy-efficient routing algorithm for wireless sensor networks

One of the limitations of wireless sensor nodes is their inherent limited energy resource. Besides maximizing the lifetime of the sensor node, it is preferable to distribute the energy dissipated throughout the wireless sensor network in order to minimize maintenance and maximize overall system performance. Any communication protocol that involves synchronization of peer nodes incurs some overhead for setting up the communication. We introduce a new algorithm, e3D (energy-efficient distributed dynamic diffusion routing algorithm), and compare it to two other algorithms, namely directed, and random clustering communication. We take into account the setup costs and analyze the energy-efficiency and the useful lifetime of the system. We compare the algorithms in terms of system lifetime, power dissipation distribution, cost of synchronization, and simplicity of the algorithm. Our simulation results show that e3D performs comparable to its optimal counterpart while having significantly less overhead.