Energy-efficient Selective Forwarding for Sensor Networks

Abstract

In this paper a new energy-efficient scheme for data transmission in wireless sensor networks is proposed. It is based on the idea of selective forwarding: sensor nodes only transmit the most relevant messages, discarding the least important ones. To do so, messages are assumed to be graded with an importance value, and a forwarding threshold, which depends on the sensor consumption patterns, the available energy resources and the information obtained from the neighborhood, is applied to these values. In this approach, the sensor decision also depends on the expected behavior of neighboring nodes, so as to maximize not only the transmission efficiency, but also the performance of the whole communication up to the estination node. Simulation results show that the proposed scheme increases the network lifetime, and maximizes the global importance of the messages received by the sink node. Index Terms¿selective forwarding, energy-efficiency, message importance, sensor networks.