Optimal Distributed Relay Selection for Duty-Cycling Wireless Sensor Networks

Recent advances in localization technologies and algorithms for Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) motivate the exploitation of location information in routing protocols. In this paper we consider the geographic forwarding of sporadically generated alarm messages. Our objective is to optimize sensor's energy consumption while respecting QoS constraints on transmission delay. For instance, we propose an optimal distributed relay selection policy for WSN with duty-cycling sensors based on a Markov Decision Process (MDP) with complete information. Also, we establish sufficient conditions for optimality of threshold policies. Then, end-to-end performances for a heuristic multi-hop relay selection strategy are established. Finally, we extend our model to account for queuing capabilities at sensor level.