A Multicast Routing Protocol with Pruning and Energy Balancing for Wireless Sensor Networks

Abstract

This paper presents a novel multicast routing protocol for wireless sensor networks, named Multicast tree protocol with Pruning and Energy Balancing (MPEB) to disseminate data through a layered multicast tree with high-efficiency and low-power consumption. With pruning algorithm and energy balancing algorithm, MPEB can save energy and balance load. Pruning algorithm records and maintains backup parents for each child node, and thus it can detach possible nodes from the multicast tree and turn as many nodes as possible to sleep. Energy balancing algorithm protects nodes with low power from running out of energy and dying out, and thus it can balance total energy consumption of the whole network and prolong the network lifetime. The formal validations and simulations evaluate the performance of MPEB, which shows that MPEB has a distinct advantage over others in both reducing and balancing energy consumption.