CROSS-LAYER PROTOCOL FOR RELIABLE AND EFFICIENT COMMUNICATION IN WIRELESS SENSOR NETWORKS

It is a practical challenge to provide reliable and efficient communication in wireless sensor networks (WSNs). However, traditional layered protocols are not jointly designed and optimized to maximize the overall network performance while minimizing the energy expenditure. In this paper, we introduce a novel node initiative concept that allows the intrinsic protocol layer functionalities required for successful communication in WSNs to be implemented in a unified protocol framework. Based on this concept, a cross-layer, reliable and efficient communication protocol (CREC) is proposed, which implements a cross-layer operation of medium access contention, robust geographical routing, and distributed congestion control with due consideration on channel effects, information fidelity and energy efficiency to realize reliable and efficient data transmission in WSNs. Extensive simulation results show that CREC, though very simple, achieves significant improvements in terms of network performance and energy efficiency over other state-of-the-art solutions.