Maximizing lifetime of multiple data aggregation trees in wireless sensor networks

Sensor data aggregation trees in a wireless sensor network (WSN) are used to gather data from an area that the WSN covers. In this paper, a hierarchical sensor network routing is proposed in which a base station (BS) cooperates with its underlying multiple cluster heads (CHs) to determine the best routes in each tree-cluster. A routing metric proposed in this paper represents the rate of energy increase on a tree when a new sensor is connected to the tree, and the BS can always select the smallest metric route among all the trees; thus, the architecture can reduce the energy consumption of the trees and extend their lifetime significantly. In addition, the proposed routing sets a backup route for each primary route on a tree by choosing the second smallest metric route after the primary route. Therefore, the lifetime of aggregation trees even after some percentage of sensors die is longer compared with other routings.