A low-complexity routing algorithm with power control for self-organizing short-range wireless networks

Mobile computing has become very pervasive, where the number of electronic devices equipped with wireless capabilities has increased significantly in recent years. This poses serious demands on wireless, mobile and self-organizing networks. Despite the fact that devices are getting smaller and more powerful, advances in battery technology have not yet reached the stage where devices can autonomously operate for days. Therefore, devices for self-organizing networks will strongly rely on the efficient use of their batteries. We present a cluster-based low-complexity routing algorithm for self-organizing networks of mobile nodes. Our proposed algorithm, called Cluster-based Energy-saving Routing Algorithm (CERA), allows mobile nodes to autonomously create clusters to minimize the power consumption. CERA is implemented as two separate protocols: the intra-cluster data-dissemination protocol, and the inter-cluster routing protocol. We present an extensive analysis of the overall protocol architecture by varying the critical factors related to protocol behavior. As a result, the CERA implementation generally saves up to 25% of energy, while keeping the overhead, in terms of energy consumption, acceptably low.