S-MECRA: A secure energy-efficient routing protocol for wireless ad hoc networks

In wireless ad hoc networks, data packets have to be relayed via energy-constrained nodes. The nodes have limited initial amounts of energy that is consumed in different rate's depending upon the power level and the intended receiver. In this paper, we propose a Minimum Energy Cost Routing Algorithm (MECRA), which will select the routes and the corresponding power levels, maximizing the battery life of the nodes. In order to maximize the lifetime, the traffic will be routed such that the energy consumption is balanced among the nodes in proportion to their energy reserves, instead of routing to minimize the absolute energy consumption. The simulation results have shown the superiority of our algorithm, in terms of energy savings and overall network lifetime, over the existing ones like MTPR [9], MBCR [9]. We extend MECRA to handle selfishness of nodes by developing a secure and energy-efficient routing protocol (S-MECRA). S-MECRA considers the node reputation while making routing decisions. It results in selection of routes that are both energy-efficient and reliable.