Environment Fusion Routing Protocol for Wireless Sensor Networks

Wireless sensor network (WSN) is usually deployed in unattended monitoring environments, with limited energy and large-scale characteristics. Therefore, the performance of WSN is susceptible to the influence of external environment and its own energy. The existing routing protocols try to optimize energy efficiency and routing reliability from the perspective of the network itself. However, they do not take into account the environmental impact from the outside, which makes them unable to properly respond to harsh environment. Therefore, a new environment fusion routing protocol (EFRP) is proposed. Cluster heads (CHs) are selected in a probabilistic manner according to the ratio of the energy of each node and environmental factors. Nodes with excellent environment have a higher probability of being selected as CHs. Besides, the EFRP optimal path is determined according to the comprehensive potential field superimposed by the distance field, residual energy field, and environmental field. The best path can be weighed among delay, energy saving, and routing invulnerability. Therefore, the balance of network energy is realized, and the invulnerability of the network in harsh environment is improved. The experimental results show that EFRP can significantly improve the data transmission and invulnerability of the network in harsh environments.