Energy-aware and link-adaptive routing metrics for ultra wideband sensor networks

Wireless sensor networks are energy constrained since sensors operate with limited battery capacity. Thus, energy consumption is one of the most critical issues in the design of routing protocols. In addition, the link quality needs to be taken into account in the route decision for a wireless multihop network in order to efficiently exploit the inherent spatial diversity. In this paper we consider energy-aware and link adaptive routing strategies for a UWB (ultra wide band) sensor networks. We utilize the rating capabilities offered by UWB and employ adaptive modulation to take advantage of favorable link conditions. Different routing metrics are proposed based on the availability of sensor node's location, link quality and next hop battery capacity information. These routing metrics integrate the measure of next hop remaining battery capacity with the throughput performance measures, maximum forward progress (MFP) or maximum information progress (MIP). The effectiveness of these metrics is evaluated in different simulation scenarios in terms of network throughput and lifetime for both random and grid sensor network topologies.