An effective energy-harvesting-aware routing algorithm for WSN-based IoT applications

Energy harvesting (EH) is considered to be the key enabling technology for the mass deployment of wireless sensor networks (WSNs) for Internet of Things (IoT) applications. Efficient EH techniques could remove the needs of frequent energy source replacement, thus offering a near perpetual network operating environment. Advances in EH techniques have shifted the design of routing protocols for EH-WSN from `energy-aware' to `energy-harvesting-aware'. This paper aims to design energy-harvesting-aware routing protocols for heterogeneous WSN-based IoT applications in the presence of ambient energy sources. We propose a new routing algorithm EHARA, which is further enhanced by integrating a new parameter called `extra backoff'. The proposed algorithm improves the lifetime of sensor nodes as well as the quality-of-service (QoS) under variable traffic load and energy availability conditions. Simulation results show that our algorithm outperforms the existing Randomized Minimum Path Recovery Time (R-MPRT) algorithm in terms of network lifetime by about 50%. It also extends the network lifetime by 40% compared to that offered by the existing Energy Harvesting Aware Ad-hoc On-Demand Distance Vector Routing Protocol (AODV-EHA) algorithm.