Performance of energy-aware and link-adaptive routing metrics for ultra wideband sensor networks

Wireless sensor networks are energy constrained since sensors operate with limited battery capacity. Thus, energy consumption is one of the most critical issues in the design of routing protocols. In addition, the link quality needs to be taken into account in the route decision for a wireless multihop network in order to efficiently exploit the inherent spatial diversity. In this paper we consider energy-aware and link-adaptive routing strategies for UWB (Ultra Wide Band) sensor networks. We utilize the ranging capabilities offered by UWB and employ adaptive modulation to take advantage of favorable link conditions. Different routing metrics are proposed based on the availability of sensor node’s location, link quality and next hop battery capacity information. These routing metrics integrate the measure of next hop remaining battery capacity with the throughput performance measures, Maximum Forward Progress (MFP) or Maximum Information Progress (MIP). The effectiveness of these metrics is evaluated in different simulation scenarios in terms of network throughput and lifetime for both random and grid sensor network topologies. Jinghao Xuis a D.Sc. candidate of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the George Washington University. He received his B.Sc. and M.S. degrees in telecommunication and electrical engineering from the Tianjin University, China, in 1993 and 1996, respectively. From 1996 to 2001, he was with Research Institute of Telecommunication Transmission of Ministry of Information Industry, Beijing, China, and China Wireless Telecommunication Standards group, where he was involved in the standardization of IMT-2000 communication systems for China. His research interests include performance evaluation and modeling of wireless ad hoc networks, Ultra Wide Band systems and multiuser detection techniques. Bojan M. Peric received the B.S. degree in electrical engineering from the University of Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia and Montenegro in 2001. He is currently working toward the D.Sc. degree in electrical engineering at the George Washington University, Washington, DC. His research interests include wireless communications, with an emphasis on ad hoc networks. Branimir R. Vojcic is a professor in, and a past Chairman of, the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the George Washington University. He has received his Dipl. Ing., M.Sc. and D.Sc. degrees from the University of Belgrade in Serbia and Montenegro in 1980, 1986 and 1989, respectively. His current research interests are in the areas of communication theory, performance evaluation and modeling mobile and wireless networks, mobile internet, code division multiple access, multiuser detection, adaptive antenna arrays, space-time coding and ad-hoc networks. He has also been an industry consultant and has published and lectured extensively in these areas. He co-authored the book: The cdma2000 System for Mobile Communications. Dr Vojcic received NSF CAREER Award in 1995. He is a Senior Member of IEEE, was an Associate Editor for IEEE Communications Letters and is presently an Associate Editor for Journal on Communications and Networks.