A Tracking-Assisted Routing Scheme for Wireless Sensor Networks

Abstract

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) offer much promise for target tracking and environmental monitoring. While many WSN routing protocols have been proposed to date, most of these focus on the mobility of observers and assume that targets are fixed. However, in reality, many applications require for sensing data to be propagated from multiple mobile targets to multiple mobile observers. In addition, WSNs often operate under strict energy constraints, and therefore reducing energy dissipation is also an important issue. In this paper, we present a grid-based routing scheme known as TRENS. First, we address the issue of the WSN comprising multiple mobile targets and observers--with TRENS being the first scheme of its kind to use tracking technology to increase the efficiency of routing procedures in the context of dynamic topology. Next, we introduce a shortcutting approach to resolve energy issues by optimizing routing paths and thus decreasing communication costs and latency. Finally, we conduct extensive simulations to show how TRENS conserves energy and performs better than other grid-based schemes.