QoS Based and Energy Aware Multi-Path Hierarchical Routing Algorithm in WSNs

In hierarchical networks, nodes are separated to play different roles such as CHs and cluster members. Each CH collects data from the cluster members within its cluster, aggregates the data and then transmits the data to the sink. Each algorithm that is used for packet routing in quality of service (QoS) based applications should be able to establish a tradeoffs between end to end delay parameter and energy consumption. Therefore, enabling QoS applications in sensor networks requires energy and QoS awareness in different layers of the protocol stack. We propose a QoS based and Energy aware Multi-path Hierarchical Routing Algorithm in wireless sensor networks namely QEMH. In this protocol, we try to satisfy the QoS requirements with the minimum energy via hierarchical methods. Our routing protocol includes two phase. In first phase, performs cluster heads election based on two parameters: node residual energy and node distance to sink. In second phase, accomplishes routes discovery using multiple criteria such as residual energy, remaining buffer size, signal-to-noise ratio and distance to sink. When each node detect an event can send data to the CH as single hop and CH to the sink along the paths. We use a weighted traffic allocation strategy to distribute the traffic amongst the available paths to improve the end to end delay and throughput. In this strategy, the CH distributes the traffic between the paths according to the end to end delay of each path. The end to end delay of each path is obtained during the paths discovery phase. QEMH maximizes the network lifetime as load balancing that causes energy consume uniformly throughout the network. Furthermore employs a queuing model to handle both real-time and non-real-time traffic. By means of simulations, we evaluate and compare the performance of our routing protocol with the MCMP and EAP protocols. Simulation results show that our proposed protocol is more efficient than those protocols in providing QoS requirements and minimizing energy consumption.