Directed diffusion based on link-stabilizing clustering for wireless sensor networks

Abstract

Reducing power consumption to extend network lifetime with limited energy resource is one of the most important challenges in wireless sensor networks. In addition, the issue of real-time communication is also very important in some practical applications. A directed diffusion algorithm based on link-stabilizing clustering (DDLSC), which is a delay-energy aware routing protocol for wireless sensor networks is proposed in this paper. DDLSC enable a wide range of tradeoffs between delay and energy consumption. The two major components of DDLSC are: a novel stable clustering scheme that forms a wireless sensor network into two layers and the cluster heads construct a virtual backbone for multi-hop communications, and a directed diffusion routing protocol based on the clustering scheme. It is simple, fast to converge, fully distributed and dynamic, and be scalable to the change in network size, density and topology. The performance of DDLSC remains very good even in largescale sensor networks, and it scales with density. Through analysis and simulation evaluations, we show that DDLSC improves the packet delay and system energy consumption compared to other current data-centric routing protocols. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2007.