Implementation of the AODV Routing in an Energy-constrained Mesh Network

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) compose the fundamental platform for a number of Internet of Things (IoT) applications, especially those related to the environmental, health, and military surveillance. While being autonomous in power supply, the main challenge in node’s processing and communication architecture design remains the energy efficiency. However, this goal should not limit the main functionality of the system which is often related to the network coverage and connectivity.This paper shows the implementation of the Ad-hoc On-demand Distance Vector (AODV) routing algorithm in an XBee based platform. As shown, the network can achieve low power consumption per node primarily due to the energy efficiency of the wireless transceivers and the due to the capability of the firmware to enable different operation modes. On the other hand, while inheriting the advantages of flooding-based route discovery protocols, the implemented AODV algorithm further minimizes the data and processing overhead, which implies the additional lifetime prolongation of the energy-constrained mesh network.