ETSeM: A Energy-Aware, Trust-Based, Selective Multi-path Routing Protocol

Multi-path routing protocols are used for different types of wireless networks primarily to enhance reliability of packet delivery. The frequency of route discovery is also less for multi-path routing protocols as these are more fault-tolerant. However, the overhead of route discovery in terms of congestion and energy requirement is much higher for multi-path routing as compared to single-path routing. In this paper, a restricted multi-path routing algorithm has been proposed that dynamically selects the number of neighboring nodes through which packets would be transmitted. The selection and degree of multipath depends on multiple factors like the remaining energy of the node, trust value of that node, number of already existing paths through that node etc. The protocol is designed in such a way, that the burden of routing is lower on the weaker nodes and the nodes with more resources will have to perform more tasks. Consequently, the lifetime of the network would be higher as compared to multi-path routing protocols. Besides, the data reception rate, defined as the ratio of the total number of packets received by the sink node and the total number of packets sent by the source node, is much higher for the proposed protocol than any single path routing. While the routing load is balanced among the nodes, the multiple routes also increase the reliability.