A novel route update design for wireless sensor networks

Abstract

In wireless sensor networks, mobility of targets and sinks, as well as power exhaustion of sensors often leads to breakage of existing routes. In this paper, we propose an efficient route update protocol (ERUP) to rebuild new routes in the neighborhood of broken ones. ERUP consists of two steps: firstly, nodes along the old problematic route define a packet propagation region; and then, route rediscovery packets are broadcast only within this region. ERUP not only achieves very low control overhead, but also provides much bigger freedom for the selection of new routes, which unnecessarily overlap the old ones. This virtue is especially important to the route-wide update cases, such as continuous movement of endpoints, and renovation of worn-out routes. Simulations verify the efficiency and scalability of ERUP.