On Energy-Efficient Straight-Line Routing Protocol for Wireless Sensor Networks

One of the limitations of a wireless sensor network (WSN) is its limited sensor node energy resource; this necessitates an energy-efficient routing protocol that maximizes the overall system performance. Rumor routing is a classic random-walk routing protocol that, unfortunately, is not scalable and can result in spiral paths. We consider that the shortest distance between two points is a straight line and that two straight lines in a plane are likely to intersect and develop for WSNs an improved protocol called straight-line routing (SLR), in which we construct a straight path using two-hop information without the assistance of geographic information. SLR thus reduces the energy consumption of sensor nodes in WSNs. We propose enhanced schemes to improve performance and conserve more energy and, with extensive simulation results, demonstrate the effectiveness of these SLR schemes in comparison with rumor routing.