An Cross Layer Algorithm Based on Power Control for Wireless Sensor Networks

Abstract

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) have become one of the important embedded research fields in the world, which integrate the technologies of sensors computation, modern networks, distributed processing, etc. WSNs are composed of low cost sensor nodes that can communicate with each other in a wireless manner, have limited computing capability and memory and operate with limited battery power. So, energy-efficient mechanism for wireless communication on each sensor node is so crucial for wireless sensor networks. This paper firstly makes a summary to power control and the existing routing metrics then finds the several key characteristics of wireless sensor networks communication link, show that the wireless links in real sensor networks can be extremely unreliable secondly the CLA (Cross Layer Algorithm) is provided which based on power control. Finally, CLA in the paper is adapted to directed diffusion routing protocol, and evaluated the performance of CLA by comparing with existing routing protocols. Simulation results show that a significant reduction in network energy consumption and prolongs the network life span. Therefore, our research can give a significant guidance on the optimization of wireless sensor networks.