Parameterized energy–latency trade-offs for data propagation in sensor networks

We study the problem of greedy, single path data propagation in wireless sensor networks, aiming mainly to minimize the energy dissipation. In particular, we first mathematically analyze and experimentally evaluate the energy efficiency and latency of three characteristic protocols, each one selecting the next hop node with respect to a different criterion (minimum projection, minimum angle and minimum distance to the destination). Our analytic and simulation findings suggest that any single criterion does not simultaneously satisfy both energy efficiency and low latency. Towards parameterized energy–latency trade-offs we provide as well hybrid combinations of the two criteria (direction and proximity to the sink). Our hybrid protocols achieve significant performance gains and allow fine-tuning of desired performance. Also, they have nice energy balance properties, and can prolong the network lifetime.