Energy Efficient Routing Scheme Using Leader Election in Ambient Energy Harvesting Wireless Ad-Hoc and Sensor Networks

In this paper(1), we present a novel application specific routing protocol called LEADER (Leader Election in Wireless Ad hoc Networks for Efficient Routing) based on leader election and cluster head scheduling. The proposed algorithm is intended to be used for routing data in smart grid environment, e.g., monitoring events from the electrical power generators. The events may include different environmental phenomena (humidity, temperature), mechanical devices operating status (turbine rotation, rotation factor), etc. Each node is assigned a unique ID. LEADER algorithm takes the number of nodes and the cluster head ID as input parameters and returns a route which accompanies all/part of the in between nodes in the cluster. The cluster head from each cluster is randomized based on the round robin selection to ensure fair energy consumption among all nodes. Thus, LEADER avoids failing the cluster heads. As the cluster heads can have the provision of being both cluster head and normal node, they are less prone to failure. However, they have to take their duty off at certain interval and transform into normal state when energy level falls below defined threshold according to the energy models used. The evaluation is based on frequency of node failure, cumulative message flow, delay characterization, and energy consumption.