EURASIP Journal on Wireless Communications and Networking 
Volume 2005 (2005), Issue 5, Pages 635-644
doi:10.1155/WCN.2005.635

Energy-Aware Routing Protocol for Ad Hoc Wireless Sensor Networks

Raminder P. Mann, Kamesh R. Namuduri, and Ravi Pendse

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Wichita State University, Wichita 67260, KS, USA

Received 15 June 2004; Revised 15 April 2005

Abstract

Wireless ad hoc sensor networks differ from wireless ad hoc networks from the following perspectives: low energy, lightweight routing protocols, and adaptive communication patterns. This paper proposes an energy-aware routing protocol (EARP) suitable for ad hoc wireless sensor networks and presents an analysis for its energy consumption in various phases of route discovery and maintenance. Based on the energy consumption associated with route request processing, EARP advocates the minimization of route requests by allocating dynamic route expiry times. This paper introduces a unique mechanism for estimation of route expiry time based on the probability of route validity, which is a function of time, number of hops, and mobility parameters. In contrast to AODV, EARP reduces the repeated flooding of route requests by maintaining valid routes for longer durations.