A real-time and robust routing protocol for building fire emergency applications using wireless sensor networks

Fire monitoring and evacuation for building environments is a novel application for the deployment of wireless sensor networks. In this context, real-time and robust routing is essential to ensure safe and timely building evacuation and the best application of fire fighting resources. Existing routing mechanisms for wireless sensor networks are not well suited for building emergencies, especially as they do not explicitly consider critical and rapidly changing network scenarios. In this paper, a novel real-time and robust routing protocol (RTRR) is presented for building fire emergency applications. It adapts to handle critical emergency scenarios and supports dynamic routing reconfiguration. Simulation results indicate that our protocol satisfies the criteria necessary to support building emergency scenarios.