EECP: A New Cross-layer Protocol for Routing in Wireless Sensor Networks

Maximizing the lifetime of a Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) is a very important challenge of network design. Therefore, the design of effective techniques that conserve scarce energy resources is a critical problem in a WSN. In this regard, a detailed study of the cross-layer protocols allowed us to draw their major drawbacks and that concerns the routing of messages and the synchronization at the sleep mode. Taking advantage of this study, we proposed a variant of the CLEEP protocol to improve and optimize the network performance. Our basic idea is to consider the network, the MAC and the physical layers when routing the sensed data. In fact, the new protocol, and by using the physical layer information, routes the data to the node that has the maximum of energy and closest to the sink. On the other hand, the protocol considers the MAC layer to determine the duty-cycle of the node and extend the sleep mode time. A comparative analysis with CLEEP shows that our protocol can improve the network performance.