JoWUA

Abstract

Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) provides the necessary infrastructure for the successful realization of emerging technological advancements such as smart places. Information, in WSN, is collected from the target locations using sensors, sensors can act as relay nodes for the successful delivery of the collected data to the base station. Energy is scarce in sensors, and usually, it cannot be renewed. To prolong the network overall lifetime, it is essential to prolong each sensors’ lifetime. Therefore, nodes placements and route selection are vital elements for WSNs, as it can significantly affect both the network performance and lifetime. Nodes in WSNs can be deployed in several ways: randomly or in an fixed manner. In this paper, we are concerned about the fixed deployment of sensors in a grid topology. In such topology, many possible routes exist between a source and a destination nodes. To reduce power consumption, it is important to find the optimal route. This paper sheds the light on the optimality of the route selection in 2x2 grid topology and presents some findings regarding this issue. The obtained optimal routes consider the power consumption factor. Some theoretical bounds were derived on the optimal number of relay nodes in a 2x2 grid. Finally, a preliminary heuristic approach is proposed, namely; Energy-Aware Routing (EAR), based on the findings obtained in this paper. The performance of the proposed heuristic is evaluated using simulation. Preliminary results show that the proposed scheme was able to prolong the network lifetime.