Spatial energy balancing through proactive multipath routing in wireless multihop networks

In this paper, we investigate the use of proactive multipath routing to achieve energy-efficient operation of ad hoc wireless networks. The focus is on optimizing tradeoffs between the energy cost of spreading traffic and the improved spatial balance of energy burdens. We propose a simple scheme for multipath routing based on spatial relationships among nodes. Then, combining stochastic geometric and queueing models, we develop a continuum model for such networks, permitting an evaluation of different types of scenarios, i.e., with and without energy replenishing and storage capabilities. We propose a parameterized family of energy balancing strategies and study the spatial distributions of energy burdens based on their associated second-order statistics. Our analysis and simulations show the fundamental importance of the tradeoff explored in this paper, and how its optimization depends on the relative values of the energy reserves/storage, replenishing rates, and network load characteristics. For example, one of our results shows that the degree of spreading should roughly scale as the square root of the bits · meters load offered by a session. Simulation results confirm that proactive multipath routing decreases the probability of energy depletion by orders of magnitude versus that of a shortest path routing scheme when the initial energy reserve is high.