CRAM: An Energy Efficient Routing Algorithm for Wireless Sensor Networks

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) can be used widely in the future. One disadvantage of the existing WSNs is the limited supply of energy. In order to postpone sy stem lifetime and enhance energy efficiency, an energy-efficient routing algorithm for WSNs, termed as Clustering Routing Algorithm using Multi-CHs-One-Cluster method (CRAM), is presented in this paper. This algorithm selects Multi-Cluster-Heads (Multi-CHs) in every cluster together as one cluster head to perform data fusion and data transmission to improve energy efficiency and enhance data transmission reliability, since one cluster-head in a cluster may be unreliable and cause energy losing in case of no de failure. Detailed simulations of sensor network environments indicate that CRAM algorithm improves energy efficiency, balances energy consumption of all sensor nodes, enhances data transmission reliability of cluster-head and postpones network system lifetime in comparison to clustering routing algorithm using one-CH-one cluster method.