Modelling and Implementation of QoS in Wireless Sensor Networks: A Multiconstrained Traffic Engineering Model

Abstract

This paper revisits the problem of Quality of Service (QoS) provisioning to assess the relevance of using multipath routing to improve the reliability and packet delivery in wireless sensor networks while maintaining lower power consumption levels. Building upon a previous benchmark, we propose a traffic engineering model that relies on delay, reliability, and energy-constrained paths to achieve faster, reliable, and energy-efficient transmission of the information routed by a wireless sensor network. As a step forward into the implementation of the proposed QoS model, we describe the initial steps of its packet forwarding protocol and highlight the tradeoff between the complexity of the model and the ease of implementation. Using simulation, we demonstrate the relative efficiency of our proposed model compared to single path routing, disjoint path routing, and the previously proposed benchmarks. The results reveal that by achieving a good tradeoff between delay minimization, reliability maximization, and path set selection, our model outperforms the other models in terms of energy consumption and quality of paths used to route the information.