Energy-efficient route selection strategies for wireless sensor networks

Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) facilitate monitoring and controlling of physical environments from remote locations with the best possible accuracy. Sensor networks are wireless networks consisting of groups of small, inexpensive nodes, which collect and disseminate critical data. Also, sensor nodes have various energy and computational constraints due to their inexpensive nature and ad hoc method of deployment. Considerable research has been focused on overcoming these deficiencies through low-energy consumption schemes. Among other factors, the route selection strategy may have an impact on the sensors lifetime, and following on the network lifetime. In this paper, we study various route selection strategies that aim at prolonging the lifetime of WSNs. Also, a new route selection scheme is proposed, that increases further the network lifetime. The performance of these schemes is analyzed through simulation.