A Joint Power Control and Routing Scheme for Rechargeable Sensor Networks

We propose a joint power control and quality aware routing scheme for rechargeable wireless sensor networks (WSNs) in order to achieve reliable network operation in the presence of spatial and temporal variations of energy resources. The proposed scheme reduces the energy consumption in sensor nodes that have low remaining battery life through cooperative and network-wide adaptations of transmit power levels and parent selection. The proposed approach incorporates estimated remaining lifetimes of nodes, the predicted minimum power levels for achieving reliable link quality, and a routing metric that includes the effect of overhearing caused to nodes that are critically low in energy resources, in addition to route quality. Performance evaluations are presented from extensive simulation studies to show the effectiveness of the proposed scheme.