Fast and reliable data forwarding in low-duty-cycle wireless sensor networks

In this paper, we propose an Enhanced Greedy Forwarding based on low Duty Cycle (GFDC). This novel scheme guarantees reliable and efficient packet transmission by considering a low-duty cycle environment. For the enhancement of the delivery rate and energy efficiency, the existing greedy forwarding schemes forward packets by considering the distance between a destination and the link asymmetry. Energy efficiency is an important problem in Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs). Most of the energy in WSNs is consumed by radio, and the power consumption for idle listening approximates to the transmission energy. If the radio keeps listening for the incoming packets then, it will cost most of battery energy and the network lifetime decreases. In order to solve this problem, duty-cycle WSNs are developed. However, the high end to end delay may increase due to certain nodes that stay asleep most of the time and wake up asynchronously. This leads to challenges for the development of new data forwarding protocols in low duty-cycle environment. In order to enhance the delivery rate, energy efficiency, and end to end delay, the GFDC uses a path with w (weight) by considering not only the unreliability and asymmetry of wireless links but also the sleep latency problem. Simulation results show that the GFDC improves end to end delay by about 26% and energy efficiency by about 6% compared to MAGF+DC (Duty Cycle).