Maximizing lifetime in wireless sensor networks under opportunistic routing

The main design challenge in wireless sensor networks is to achieve satisfactory network lifetimes under scarce energy resources available at the nodes. In this paper we present an optimization framework for maximizing lifetime of a network in which opportunistic routing together with random linear network coding is used. We propose a scheme in which each node attempts to receive transmissions from a given neighbor, and thus consumes energy for receiving, with a certain probability. Optimality conditions are presented and approaches to solving the problem are discussed. We conclude with numerical experiments which confirm performance improvements achieved using our framework.