EQos: An Energy Efficient Qos Protocol for Wireless Sensor Networks

We consider the problem of maintaining the quality of service above a desired level through the wireless sensor network while conserving energy at the same time. We propose a two phase protocol, EQos, for this purpose. The first phase of the protocol creates a virtual communication backbone and enables a subset of nodes , termed as (leaves), to turn off their radios and learn their rough coordinates. Since energy efficiency should be the goal of such a constrained network in every aspect beside communication, we introduce a distributed algorithm based on rough coordinate and local neighborhood information in order to turn redundant sensor hardware off in the second phase of the protocol. EQos, which is both applicable for homogeneous and heterogeneous networks, has shown significant improvements during simulation experiments and proved to be effective for wireless sensor networks.