An energy efficient hole detour scheme using probability based on virtual position in WSNs

Holes are generated due to limited precision of deployment, and thus bypassing holes is one important issue of Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs). In existing routing schemes using an optimal path, intermediate nodes in the path may deplete their energy quickly, which results in expansion of holes. The Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) algorithm solves this problem by balancing the traffic of data transmitted in the optimal path with transition probability. Ant Colony optimization based Location aware Routing (ACLR) is a hole detour scheme that uses nodes residual energy in transition probability to route data packets in a more energy-efficient way. The problem of ACLR is that it causes unbalanced energy consumption when local minimums occur because a packet may be retransmitted many times by one sensor node. In addition, ACLR also limits the number of nodes used for routing data. In this paper, we propose an algorithm that uses the node's virtual position, calculated by neighbor nodes coordinates, when computing distances between sensor nodes. By using a node's virtual positions, a routing scheme using Probability based on Virtual Position (PViP) reduces the number of backoff processes and has more neighbor nodes compared to ACLR. This will enhance the delay performance. As a result, it can balance energy consumption among nodes, improve the network lifetime by up to 7.3%, and the transmission delay by up to 2.7%.