CERA: Cluster-Based Energy Saving Algorithm to Coordinate Routing in Short-Range Wireless Networks

We propose a simple protocol that allows mobile nodes to autonomously create clusters to minimize the power consumption and route packets based on the clusters in the mixed wired/wireless network. Our proposed protocol, called Cluster-based Energy-saving Routing Algorithm (CERA) is implemented as two separate components: the intra-cluster data-dissemination protocol and the cluster routing protocol. Our protocol focuses on simplicity as well as sufficient robustness and self-recoverability to enable simple and fast node reconfiguration. Simulation results using ns-2 simulator show that, in general, the CERsA implementation allows up to 25% of energy saving while keeping the overhead extremely low.