THEEM: Threshold-Sensitive Energy Efficient Multi-hop Routing Protocol for WSNs

Randomly deployed nodes in wireless sensor network (WSN) have limited energy so their energy should be efficiently utilized. Early death of nodes is the major problem in WSN as it causes uneven load distribution. Compared with dynamic clustering schemes, multi hop communication in static clustering improves the stability region. It also provides better coverage and reduces energy hole problem. But, as the life of network proceeds, premature death of data forwarding nodes reduces stability region and prolongs unstable region. To address this we proposed THEEM, a hybrid approach which brings threshold sensitivity with static clustering multi hop routing protocol. Additionally data forwarding nodes are provided with extra energy but it is compensated from other nodes. We included random uniform packet drop model to include the effect of the wireless medium. Results show that our strategy improves stable region and network lifetime and minimizes energy hole problem.