Optimal probabilistic energy-aware routing for duty-cycled wireless sensor networks

Network lifetime is still the key issue when we deploy wireless sensor networks and IoT solutions in real-world applications. Current WSN research trends include duty-cycling at MAC layer and energy efficient routing at network layer, among others. In this study we propose an Optimal Probabilistic Energy-Aware Routing Protocol (OPEAR) for duty-cycled WSNs which aims at maximizing the network lifetime by keeping low energy consumption and balancing network traffic between nodes. Our experimental campaign reveals that our OPEAR protocol outperforms the popular Energy Aware Routing Protocol (EAR) from the literature, proving to be more effective in extending the network lifetime.