Exploiting redundancy for energy-efficiency in Wireless Sensor Networks

Abstract

Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) are used today in many applications that differ in their objectives and specific constraints. The common challenge in designing WSN applications comes from the specific constraints of sensors because of their limited physical resources such as weak computational capability, small memory capacity, and especially limited battery. In this paper, we consider sensor redundancy in WSN and we conduct an experimental study to better highlight the importance of its exploitation. We also implement OER `Optimization of Energy based on Redundancy', a protocol that exploits redundancy in order to save energy. Moreover, we extend OER by a fault tolerance mechanism. Through extensive simulations, we show how OER combined with FTMOer outperforms traditional routing protocols that do not exploit redundancy.