Adaptive routing in wireless sensor networks: QoS optimisation for enhanced application performance

One of the key challenges for research in wireless sensor networks is the development of routing protocols that provide application-specific service guarantees. This paper presents a new cluster-based Route Optimisation and Load-balancing protocol, called ROL, that uses various Quality of Service (QoS) metrics to meet application requirements. ROL combines several application requirements, specifically it attempts to provide an inclusive solution to prolong network life, provide timely message delivery and improve network robustness. It uses a combination of routing metrics that can be configured according to the priorities of user-level applications to improve overall network performance. To this end, an optimisation tool for balancing the communication resources for the constraints and priorities of user applications has been developed and Nutrient-flow-based Distributed Clustering (NDC), an algorithm for load balancing is proposed. NDC works seamlessly with any clustering algorithm to equalise, as far as possible, the diameter and the membership of clusters. This paper presents simulation results to show that ROL/NDC gives a higher network lifetime than other similar schemes, such Mires++. In simulation, ROL/NDC maintains a maximum of 7% variation from the optimal cluster population, reduces the total number of set-up messages by up to 60%, reduces the end-to-end delay by up to 56%, and enhances the data delivery ratio by up to 0.98% compared to Mires++.

► A cluster-based routing protocol is proposed.
► Load balancing is achieved by a nature-inspired clustering algorithm.
► The user can set quality of service requirements.
► The clustering and routing protocols adapt their configuration to these requirements.
► The presented work is an inclusive solution to improve overall network performance.