Abstract
In wireless sensor networks (WSNs), power consumption is an important aspect when designing routing protocols. When compared to other components of a sensor node, the power required by radio transmitters is responsible for most of the consumption. One way to optimize energy consumption is by using energy-aware protocols. Such protocols take into consideration the residual energy information (i.e., remaining battery power) when making decisions, providing energy efficiency through the careful management of energy consumption. In this work, we go further and propose a new routing protocol that uses not only the residual energy information, but also the available renewable energy information from renewable energy sources such as solar cells. We then present the Renewable Energy-Based Routing (REBORN) algorithm, an energy-aware geographic routing algorithm, capable of managing both the residual and the available energy. Our results clearly show the advantages and the efficiency achieved by our REBORN algorithm when compared to other proposed energy-aware approaches.
Highlights
A wireless sensor network (WSN) is composed of several sensor nodes that, together, can monitor and collect data from an area of interest
Several solutions have been proposed in the literature that aim at extending the lifetime of a WSN
We propose a new routing algorithm for WSNs that takes advantage of both the residual battery energy and the available renewable energy to allow energy savings
Summary
A wireless sensor network (WSN) is composed of several sensor nodes that, together, can monitor and collect data from an area of interest. In many of the envisioned scenarios, these areas have singular features such as high and low ground terrains, lakes, and obstacles, that demand self-organizing routing algorithms [1,2] Another critical challenge in these networks is how to optimize the energy consumption of the sensor nodes since they can be deployed in inhospitable places with difficult access, making it unfeasible to change batteries [3,4,5]. As shown in [16], sensor nodes can be equipped with devices that can both collect and store energy so it can be used to increase the network lifetime This energy harvesting can be done, for instance, by using solar cells that are able to identify the intensity of the available energy, important information that we will explore in our solution.
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