Data Transmission Direction Based Routing Algorithm for Improving Network Performance of IoT Systems

Abstract

With the continuous development of wireless communication technology, the Internet of Things (IoT) is being used in a wide range of fields. The IoT collects and exchanges large amounts of data with objects, either tangible or intangible, such as sensors or physical devices, connected to the Internet. Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) are components of IoT systems. WSNs are used in various IoT systems, such as monitoring, tracking, and detection systems, to extract relevant information and deliver it to users. WSNs consist of sensor nodes with low power, low cost, and multiple functions. Because sensor nodes have limited resources, such as power and memory, a reduction in the energy efficiency of the sensor nodes in WSNs will lead to a decrease in wireless network performance and an increase in packet loss, which affects IoT system performance. Therefore, this study aimed to find an energy-efficient routing method that extends the lifetime of WSNs by minimizing the battery use of sensor nodes to improve the network performance of IoT systems. Conserving energy from sensor nodes and increasing network throughput in WSNs involves having protocols. The low-energy adaptive clustering hierarchy (LEACH ) protocol is a well-known hierarchical routing protocol in WSNs that constructs clusters and transmits data. LEACH increases energy efficiency by transmitting data from sensor nodes to the base station (BS) through the cluster head. It is widely adopted in the WSN network field, and many protocols are being studied to improve cluster header selection and data transmission to increase the energy efficiency of sensor nodes. In this study, we attempted to improve energy efficiency by removing unnecessary energy from LEACH. In LEACH, when the sensor node is located between the BS and the cluster head, the sensor node transmits data to the cluster head in the opposite direction of the BS. The data sent to the cluster head are transmitted in the direction of the BS. Thus, transmission in the opposite direction consumes unnecessary energy and affects the WSN performance of IoT systems. In this study, we propose a D-LEACH (direction-based LEACH) protocol based on the received signal strength indicator (RSSI) that improves the efficiency of transmission energy considering the data transmission direction of sensor nodes. D-LEACH aims to balance the energy of the sensor nodes and improve the performance of WSNs in the IoT system by reducing unnecessary energy consumption caused by reverse transmission considering the data transmission direction of the sensor nodes. In the course of the paper, we refer to the routing protocol of WSNs to improve network performance and describe LEACH. We also explain the D-LEACH protocol proposed in this paper and confirm the performance improvement of WSNs in an IoT system through simulation.