A novel energy-aware routing protocol in intermittently connected delay-tolerant wireless sensor networks

In delay-tolerant wireless sensor networks, messages for sensor data are delivered using opportunistic contacts between intermittently connected nodes. Since there is no stable end-to-end routing path like the Internet and mobile nodes operate on battery, an energy-efficient routing protocol is needed. In this article, we consider the probabilistic routing protocol using history of encounters and transitivity protocol as the base protocol. Then, we propose an energy-aware routing protocol in intermittently connected delay-tolerant wireless sensor networks, where messages are forwarded based on the node’s remaining battery, delivery predictability, and type of nodes. The performance of the proposed protocol is compared with that of probabilistic routing protocol using history of encounters and transitivity and probabilistic routing protocol using history of encounters and transitivity with periodic sleep in detail, from the aspects of delivery ratio, overhead ratio, delivery latency, and ratio of alive nodes. Simulation results show that the proposed protocol has better delivery probability, overhead ratio, and ratio of alive nodes, in most of the considered parameter settings, in spite of a small increase in delivery latency.