Load-balancing using multi-path directed diffusion in wireless sensor networks

Abstract

Directed diffusion (DD) is a data-centric routing protocol based on purely local interactions between individual network nodes. This protocol uses application-specific context for data aggregation and dissemination. Therefore, it can be completely matched to the application requirements in a large distributed sensor network. Many work have been recently done to improve the energy efficiency of this protocol. In this paper, an extension to DD is presented in order to construct multiple paths between the sink and the sensor sources. Using this method, load-balancing is implemented to increase the life-time of the sensor nodes collaborating in the routing process. The proposed protocol, Multi-path directed diffusion (MDD), can produce more than one disjoint or braided paths and spread the data collected in the sources, properly between the paths. In this way, an efficient load balancing mechanism has been implemented. The simulation results show that through using MDD, the lifetime of the network connections between the sources and the sink will be increased and the interest flooding rate which is proved to be an expensive operation can be reduced. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2007.