Adapting OLSR for WSNs (iOLSR) Using Locally Increasing Intervals

Proactive link state routing protocols, popular within the Mobile Ad hoc NETwork framework, have not been as successful in wireless sensor networks. This is mainly due to the extensive energy usage by control traffic transmissions and state requirements. However, such protocols may in many situations be better suited than other routing schemes. The benefits are topology overview, and more importantly the availability of an optimized spanning tree for information distribution. The associated high signaling overhead can be reduced by taking advantage of the static nature of wireless sensor networks. In this paper, we investigate how the Optimized Link- State Routing (OLSR) protocol can be adapted to work better in a wireless sensor network environment by sending control messages with a low frequency when the network is stable, and more often if topology changes occur. The proposed solution is investigated using simulations from no loss to lossy link environments showing promising results.