Maximum Energy Welfare Routing in Wireless Sensor Networks

Most routing algorithms for sensor networks focus on finding energy efficient paths to prolong the lifetime of sensor networks. As a result, the sensors on the efficient paths are depleted quickly, and consequently the sensor networks become incapable of monitoring events from some parts of their target areas. In many sensor network applications, the events have uncertainties in positions and generation patterns. Therefore, routing algorithms should be designed to consider not only energy efficiency, but also the amount of energy left in each sensor to avoid sensors running out of power early. This paper introduces a new metric, called Energy-Welfare, devised to consider average and balance of sensors’ remaining energies simultaneously. Using this metric, we design the Maximum Energy Welfare Routing algorithm, which achieves energy efficiency and energy balance of sensor networks simultaneously. Moreover, we demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed routing algorithm by comparing with three existing routing algorithms.