Proceedings of the 2007 International Conference on Information Acquisition
July 9-11, 2007, Jeju City, Korea
An Auto-adaptive Routing algorithm for Wireless Sensor
Networks*
Wanming Chen 1,2, Tao Meil, Yangming Li" 2, Huawei Liang', Yumei Liu3 and Max Q.-H. Meng'
'Institute ofIntelligent Machines 3Department of Computer Science and Technology
Chinese Academy of Science
2Department of Automation University of Science and Technology of China
University of Science and Technology of China
Hefei, Anhui Province, China
{wmchen, tmei, hwliang,qhmeng}giim.ac.cn
Abstract - Considering on the insufficiency of using different
routing algorithms for different applications, we proposed
an auto-adaptive routing algorithm for wireless sensor
networks. It firstly proposed two different routing methods
using for the sensor node's localization and the for the
object's localization respectively. When we had obtained the
nodes' positions through some localization algorithms, it
used an energy aware geography position based routing
method for the object's information acquisition. In order to
satisfy this application, it designed an auto-adaptive routing
mechanism facilitate the use of the two or more routing
methods. It has been shown that the routing algorithm has a
high performance in getting a shorter path routing or
energy balanced routing by adjusting of its parameters.
Into-adeptier algorithm
auto-adaptive Wirs s rn
I. INTRODUCTION
The wireless sensor network is a burgeoning and high
potential network system. It consists of a lot of sensor nodes
and wireless communication device. It has a lot of application
foreground on the military affairs, environment detection,
medical treatment, home nursing, and other commercial realm
[1]. The network's routing mechanism is on duty of
transmitting information from one sensor node to another
through the network. It is the foundation to achieve a high
efficient communication for wireless sensor networks.
The wireless sensor network is an application interrelated
network. Aiming at the different demand on application, some
authors inside and outside of our country have designed many
routing algorithms for wireless sensor networks. In order to
use the limited energy of the wireless sensor network
effectively, Rahul C. Shah et al. proposed an energy aware
routing for low energy ad hoc sensor networks [2]. By the
integrative consideration of energy consumption on
*Supposed by Key Program of the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant No. 60535010; the National
Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant No. 60475027.
l1-4244-1l220-X/07/$25.OO ©C2007 IEEE
Hefei, Anhui Province, China
piaoliugmail.ustc.edu.cn
communication of nodes and the nodes' residual energy, it
reduced the network's energy consumption. On the
applications of object tracking and calamity succouring, it is
very important to using routing protocol which is based on
verypimporta ongTherui pRotocolawhichi asd on
georaphynpositin. GEA (Graph andengy
aware routing) routing[3] and GEM(Graph Embedding)[4]
routing agrh as rethe classical ones between them. Onthe
applications such as environment detection where it needs to
query the sensor nodes' data, it is good for routing protocol
which is based on querying. DD(Directed diffusion) algorithm
is a routing mechanism focused on nodes' data and based on
querying. The DD algorithm is deemed to a landmark of
routing algorithm in wireless sensor networks. And many
routing algorithms for wireless sensor networks are proposed
on the foundation of it presently [5][6]. The sink node sent
query tasks through the interest message, and transmitted them
in the wireless sensor network by flooding. In the process of
interest message transmitting, the DD algorithm built a data
transmitting gradient for each sensor node from the data
source node to the sink node. And then the data source node
carried the gathering data to the sink node in the direction of
the data gradient [7].
These routing algorithms for wireless sensor networks
referred above are just fit for some special applications. When
the application demands change, the routing algorithm needs
to change correspondingly. And in a lot of instances, we must
change the routing demand of wireless sensor networks to
accomplish a certain task. This makes these routing algorithms
much limited and highly unwieldy for use. Let's takes the
object tracking application in wireless sensor networks for
example. At beginning, the sensor nodes need to use
localization algorithm to obtain each node's position in
wireless sensor networks. In the process of localization, they
need to communication mutually and transmit data for each
other. At this time it needs a routing algorithm to achieve the
localization task. By all appearances, it is not feasible to using
574
those routing algorithms based on node's geography position,
because it has not gotten each node's position. It can use
flooding routing or the restricted flooding routing algorithms
at that time. Because the flooding routing consumes a lot of
network's energy, we'd better not use it when the network's
localization process has finished. When it began to track the
object, it is much appropriate to use routing algorithm based
on node's geography position. In one word, it needs more than
one routing algorithms for each application such as object
tracking in a lot of applications. We need to design an auto-
adaptive routing mechanism for these applications. Using the
auto-adaptive routing mechanism, we need not care about
when to change routing algorithm and which to change. We
just transfer the routing mechanism and the routing
mechanism will choose an appropriate routing protocol to use
automatically.
Summarizing the above analysis, we designed a new auto-
adaptive routing algorithm for wireless sensor networks. To
achieve the demand for some application such as object
localization, we use a uniform routing algorithm interface for
the routing in wireless sensor networks and the routing
algorithm will choose an appropriate routing method
automatically for different situations. In the paper, on the
background application of object localization in wireless
sensor networks, we proposed the two routing methods
needing for nodes' localization and the object localization
separately, and designed an auto-adaptive routing algorithm to
manage the different routing method for different instance.
This paper is organized as follows. Section 2 describes the two
routing methods for sensor nodes' and the object's
localization. And then designs the new auto-adaptive routing
selecting mechanism. Section 3 analyzes the experiment for
the proposed routing algorithm and Section 4 gives the
conclusion.
II. A NEW AUTO-ADAPTIVE ROUTING SELECTING MECHANISM
FORNODE'S AND OBJECT'S LOCALIZATION
In this section, we first proposed two routing methods for
wireless sensor network's nodes and for object's localization
respectively. And then, we combine these two or more routing
methods, and design a new auto-adaptive routing selecting
mechanism for the application of object's localization.
First, let's analyze the process of sensor node's
localization for routing. When the sensor nodes in wireless
sensor networks began to localize their geography position,
the three instances would occur. The 1st instance: for each
blind node (who does not know its own position coordinates),
it mainly need to obtain the distance measured from its
neighbor sensor nodes and get the position coordinates
information of the beacon nodes( who knows its position
coordinates). After that it may have the ability to calculate its
position coordinates by localization algorithms. The 2nd
instance: for the beacon nodes, in order to make eachlnd
node use their position information, they mainly need to
575
broadcast their position coordinates information to the entire
wireless sensor network. The 3rd instance: in the process of
localization, it is most likely that sensor nodes need to
exchange localization related data with the nodes several hops
away. There required a routing method in all of the three
instances above to guarantee that the sensor nodes in the
network finish the data exchanging. When sensor nodes don't
have their neighbors' information, it's a common method to
use flooding or restricted flooding routing in wireless sensor
networks. Some authors have pay attention to the flooding
routing [8][9], but not to the routing for node's localization.
The restricted flooding routing method for node's
localization is as follows:
If a node wants to communicate with other nodes, it will
broadcast a message to all its neighbors. The message includes
the content which it wants to communicate with others, and a
Lift Value (LV). If other nodes received the message and the
LV>O, it will subtract 1 from LV (LV=LV-1) and transmit the
message to its other neighbors. If the LV=O, the nodes will
just receive it and not transmit it.
In order to fit for the three instances talked above, the LV
can be set in the three values initially.
When a sensor node just wants to communicate with its
neighbors, it will set the LV with 0 (LV=O). The neighbors
will receive the message but not transmit it.
When a beacon node wants to broadcast it information to
the entire network, it will set the LV with equal or more than
the maximal hop from itself to the entire network. If it doesn't
know the maximal hop, it can first set with INF.
When a node wants to communicate with the n hop of
neighbors to get the localization information, it can set the LV
with n.
From this way, the routing method can effectively prevent
the message from been transmit infinitely in the network.
B. A Routing Method Based on Node's Geography
Position(RGP)
When the positions of the wireless sensor network's nodes
have been obtained, a first idea is that let the nodes route along
the minimal distance between the nodes and the target node.
However, it has some disadvantages. Because the energy of
node is limited, if a certain node was used time and time
again, it would die and may bring a transmitting hole for the
network. Therefore, we considered node's energy with the
routing path and importantly, we joined probability into the
routing algorithm and made node selecting limitedly random
within the combining of shorter path and balanced energy.
This method is something similar with the Ant Colony
Optimization Algorithm. At the time of t, /ik(t) denotes the
pheromone, 1k (t) denotes the energy of the node k, and
pi (t)istheprobabilityofnodeiselectingnode]forthenext
hop (x y denotesthepositionofnode i
.I
When we obtain the nodes' positions, we can calculate the
ditne rmechnd o h ageaoe
 If u>4, the sensor nodes are inclined to choose the path
Dist yt)2
(x1Dis- At ) + yi -Yt which have been routed to transmit data.
At beginning, for each node i, it got its neighbours' Else if o<j, the sensor nodes are inclined to choose a path
distance information and calculated the pheromone ,U on which the node's energy is relatively high.
IJ Parameter c assists to changes the probability of each
between the node i and its each neighborj. path. For example, if c= 1, it doesn't select the minimal /,uk (t)
,j(0) =D1i-sjt node for routing and the maximal ,uk (t) node has a larger
(1)
E Diskt probability to be selected.
ke neighbor(i) When it had actually select node j for the next hop, the
Start for routing pheromone ,. between the node i and its each neighbor j
______________________________ would be updated.
Obtain neighbour nodes' (3)
positions, residual energy and Where the Au is the parameter for li 's updating.
lAl>(t) The routing flow ofthe proposed method is in Fig. 1.

Calculate and choose the next C. A New Auto-adaptive Routing Selecting Mechanism
hop The above two routing methods are used for sensor nodes'
localization and then object's localization respectively. But for
increase the /'k object's localization we need to first localize the sensor nodes
(electedrout)ng nofde and then the object. That is, in this application, we need the
both two routing methods. Therefore, we need a new auto-
adaptive routing selecting mechanism to facilitate the use of
the two or more routing methods.
Thenode's enery I

is under the Wi oil1wu bt i> t ol ig

thrPchnIr6 NO ti&fods
ES h

Notify its neighbour its

residual energy Th& bo . Th& bod
_,~~
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~~~~oORFR ,;D 6f RGP
| mc~~~~~~~~~~~~~ffi&thd
IC ) ffiedt6
I Transmit Data Iw\

|II Ia The Data poi in ffie node6

NO Fig.2 The architecture of the proposed routing mechanism
Isdination? The architecture of the routing algorithm is shown in
Fig.2. The sensor node collects data information such as
+YES YES
position and energy in the Data pool. The arbitrator uses
End for one data Information collecting mechanism to get the interested
Fig. 1 The flow chart or the routing
it in
method based on node's position information from the pool. If he gets the position information
Irri ri

of the node's neighbors, he thinks that he can use the RGP

When the initial f,U (0) had been obtained, at the time t, routing method to get the next hop. If the node is a beacon
node i would select neighbor node j for the next hop at the node and wants to broadcast its position data, the arbitrator
will select the RFR routing method to broadcast. In this
probabilityJof
(t).~ situation, the users can just tell the arbitrator through the
interface that they need a routing method; the arbitrator will
p, (t) = ~[/j (t) - [7i c.min(7k (t))]8
c.min(A,k (t))] a - select a routing method for them automatically.
, [dk (t) c.min(Aik (t))]a - Cmin(7k (t))]?
- III. SIMULATION RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
keneighbor(i)
(2) We deploy 200 sensor nodes randomly in a two-
.<<
0. 0 .c
.1.p~(t)
.pjt is the probability to dimensional space, which is 160m*160m. The object is at
Where a, f30
choose node j for routing.
to coordinates (160,160) and the sink node is at coordinates
(0,0). The communication range is 40 meters. Assume that the

576
power consumption for sending data is 666mw and for When o=O, the algorithm just take the energy into account.
receiving data is 395mw. The initial energy for all nodes is the It will more likely to select the node whose energy is larger for
same, which is OOOJ. The object sends 2 packets per second the next hop. As is shown in Fig 5, the energy of node is
(2p/s). Each packet is same in size, which is 64K bytes. The similar with each other. It will not happen that some nodes is
transmitting rate is 1.6Mb/s.Al=0.2, and c=1. The simulation out of energy prematurely and make the wireless sensor
time is lOOOs. network die unexpectedly.
Because the first routing method (The Restricted
Flooding) is very simple, we don't want to pay more attention 7 -
on its simulation. Assuming we have got the position , -
information for each node after a certain localization - I-
algorithm, we simulate the performance of the routing method / / -
based on Node's Geography Position. ,
Because the sensor nodes just have a limited energy and c 800 , ,/.
may not change battery after been deployed for a certain 600 /1 // I
application, the nodes' energy is very importance for wireless E // /
sensor networks. Therefore, we compare the energy c 400 / / /
consumption with the other routing algorithm such as DD ° 200
algorithm. 0 16 (D
0/
' /0 g/ 100~~~~~~ 0<,X
20
*eor Avrage dissipated energy for DD algorih 5
cD
D
0.16
0.1
Average dissipated energy for our algorithm 100

50 AX

7
a
0.14
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~y 0

cm lFig.4. Distributing of energy consumption in wireless sensor networks when

e) 0.12 c=2, ,=O (T=lOOOs)
-~0.1
a) 0 r I

() 0.06
03) 024 -- i

>0 258-i,

Time (s) o 25I ' ~

Fig.3 Comparison ofthe Proposed Algorithm with DD algorithm 22',,- : 0;. -: >' --
E) 256- ,- .,--- /s1
In figure 3, we obtain data information per 20s. And in DD tL 150 ' ','
algorithm, it re-initializes the routing algorithm per 60s. 10
Because in our algorithm, we use the probability (in 50 50
formula 2) to select the next hop and don't need to re-initialize X
the routing, the average energy consumption is smaller than
DD. Fig.5 Distributing of energy consumption in wireless sensor networks when
We then compare the algorithm with different parameter. >c=o ,B2 (T=lOOOs)
When we use oc=2 f30 and uoc= f32, the energy consumption
is shown is Fig. 4 and 5. IV. CONCLUSIONS
As is shown in formula 2, when f30, the algorithm doesn't In this paper, we proposed an auto-adaptive routing
take the energy of nodes into account. It will more likely to algorithm for wireless sensor networks. It can automatically
select the node whose ,Ujis bigger for the next hop. Because select different routing methods according to the different
demands. It facilitates the use of routing methods on different
the U(0) iS correlatlve with the distance from the node to the
sink node (in formula 1), it the node of smaller path routing and the energy balanced routing.
distance to route. Therefore, the algorithm will select the
minimal distance path (which is correlative) for routing. The REFERENCES
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