Robust cooperative routing protocol in mobile wireless sensor networks

In wireless sensor networks, path breakage occurs frequently due to node mobility, node failure, and channel impairments. It is challenging to combat path breakage with minimal control overhead, while adapting to rapid topological changes. Due to the Wireless Broadcast Advantage (WBA), all nodes inside the transmission range of a single transmitting node may receive the packet, hence naturally they can serve as cooperative caching and backup nodes if the intended receiver fails to receive the packet. In this paper, we present a distributed robust routing protocol in which nodes work cooperatively to enhance the robustness of routing against path breakage. We compare the energy efficiency of cooperative routing with noncooperative routing and show that our robust routing protocol can significantly improve robustness while achieving considerable energy efficiency.