Collaborative packets forwarding to extend lifetime of multi-authority wireless sensor networks

In multi-authority Wireless Sensor Networks, governed by different authorities, resource constrained a node may be reluctant to forward packets received from other collaborating authorities, so as to save its own resources. If adopted by a significant percentage of nodes, such behavior can affect network performance and may reduce the service time of each node. To investigate such sensor nodes behavior, we used an Evolutionary Game Theory (EGT) approach. We studied a model of the system based on incentives and evolved the system according to standard replicator dynamics. We observed the emergence of a collaborative equilibrium. Based on this we designed a cluster based Collaborative Packets Forwarding (CPF) algorithm and showed by simulation that it is able to extend network lifetime.