Energy Efficient Opportunistic Routing with Sleep Scheduling in Wireless Sensor Networks

The network life of wireless sensor networks (WSNs) relies on the limited energy of non-rechargeable batteries used at the sensor node. Hence, maximum energy saving is essential in the research area while designing a routing algorithm for the WSNs. An energy-saving opportunistic routing (ENS_OR) uses an opportunistic routing concept to improve network performance while relaying data. In this paper, the ENS_OR is further revised with a sleep scheduling algorithm to reduce energy dissipation in one dimensional topology. The proposed sleep scheduling algorithm is designed to enhance network performance by minimizing energy dissipation due to the idle listening of nodes. Sleep interval is adaptive, and it is made proportional to the residual energy of nodes as well as the flow rate of the network. The results of the proposed algorithm are analyzed and compared with ENS_OR without sleep mode and other routing protocols used in WSNs. The results prove that ENS_OR with sleep mode is beneficial to conserve energy for a prolonged lifetime.