A Synthetic Function for Energy-Delay Mapping in Energy Efficient Routing

In traditional approaches to energy efficient routing, a node needs to
receive routing messages from all of its neighbors to be able to
select the best route. In a previous work, we have proposed a
technique that enables the best route selection based on exactly one
message reception. Our protocol delays
forwarding of routing messages (RREQ) for an interval inversely
proportional to the residual energy. Energy-delay mapping techniques
make it possible to enhance an existing min-delay routing protocol
into an energy-aware routing that maximizes the lifetime of sensor
networks. We have proposed some heuristic functions to perform the
energy-delay mapping. This paper analyzes their limitations and
derives a suitable synthetic function that guarantees that a node
selects the best route with very high probability. We also identify
comparative elements that help us to perform a thorough a posteriori
comparison of the mapping functions in terms of the route selection
precision. Simulation results show that our synthetic functions select
routes with very high precision while keeping the propagation delay of
routing messages reasonable.