Clustering-based power-controlled routing for mobile wireless sensor networks

This paper presents two new routing protocols for mobile sensor networks, viz. power-controlled routing (PCR) and its enhanced version, i.e. enhanced power-controlled routing (EPCR). In both the protocols, fixed transmission power is employed in the clustering phase but when ordinary nodes are about to send their data to their respective cluster-heads, they change their transmission power according to their distance from their cluster-head. While in PCR, the nodes are associated with the cluster-head on the basis of weight, in EPCR it is done on the basis of distance. In addition to the protocols, we are suggesting a packet loss recovery mechanism for the PCR and EPCR. Both protocols work well for both mobile and static networks and are designed to achieve high network lifetime, high packet delivery ratio, and high network throughput. These protocols are extensively simulated using mass mobility model, with different speeds and different number of nodes to evaluate their performance. Simulation results show that both PCR and EPCR are successful in achieving their objectives by using variable transmission powers and smart clustering. Copyright 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.