A real-time routing protocol with load distribution in wireless sensor networks

Wireless sensor network (WSN) is a wireless ad hoc network that consists of very large number of tiny sensor nodes communicating with each other with limited power and memory constrain. WSN demands real-time forwarding which means messages in the network are delivered according to their end-to-end deadlines (packet lifetime). This paper proposes a novel real-time routing protocol with load distribution (RTLD) that ensures high packet throughput with minimized packet overhead and prolongs the lifetime of WSN. The routing depends on optimal forwarding decision that takes into account of the link quality, packet delay time and the remaining power of next hop sensor nodes. The proposed mechanism has been successfully studied and verified through simulation and real test bed implementation.