An Energy and Distance Aware Routing Protocol for Wireless Sensor Networks

In this paper, we propose an energy- and distance-aware routing (EDAR) protocol to enhance the lifetime of wireless sensor networks (WSNs). In the EDAR protocol, we enhance the network lifetime by both reducing and balancing the energy consumption of sensor nodes (SNs). We reduce SNs’ energy consumption in intra-cluster communication by reducing the uneven distribution of CHs in the network. Further, we reduce SNs’ energy consumption in inter-cluster communication by prioritizing close-to-sink SNs for the CH role. Furthermore, we balance SNs’ energy consumption by prioritizing SNs with higher residual energy for the CH role. Additionally, we propose an energy-efficient technique to eliminate the need for reclustering in each round. This technique reduces SNs’ energy consumption in control overhead. For performance evaluation, we compare the EDAR protocol with AEELD, EDFIKM, I-SEP, EUDFC, and LEACH protocols. Results show that EDAR protocol achieves 42:0%, 45:0%, 46:0%, 48:0%, and 53:0% more network lifetime than AEELD, I-SEP, EUDFC, LEACH, and EDFIKM, respectively.