Extending lifetime of Wireless Nano-Sensor Networks: An energy efficient distributed routing algorithm for Internet of Nano-Things

Abstract

Recent improvements in nanotechnology and Internet of Things (IoT) have led to the emergence of the concept of Internet of Nano-Things (IoNT). This concept provided ease of access and communication facilities for the nano-devices in applications of different fields operating at the molecular level such as health, industry, agriculture, robotics and military. These distributed devices interconnect over the Wireless Nano-Sensor Networks (WNSNs) in nano-scale which have limited energy and capacity. Therefore, these devices need to use their energy efficiently when communicating with each other to ensure network continuity and maintain all processes of IoNT applications. In this paper, a novel energy-efficient distributed routing algorithm, namely DEEPNT, is proposed in order to extend the lifetime of WNSNs in IoNT applications. The communication backbone of WNSNs constructed by DEEPNT by selecting cluster head nodes can be used in all types of IoNT applications in nano-scale in order to provide continuous data flow in critical areas such as healthcare running in vivo. This novel energy-efficient distributed protocol is compared with the traditional flooding based method and with an energy aware routing algorithm. According to the results, DEEPNT prolongs the WNSNs average lifetime respectively up to 10.78 and 5.95 times compared to mentioned algorithms despite the larger network sizes in nano-scale.