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CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

1.1 INTRODUCTION

Networking facilitates communication between many devices that

are linked together using a communication channel. The devices that are
connected together on a network are called nodes (Peterson & Davie 2012).
The connection could be done either using wires or wirelessly through radio
waves. Based on the transmission mode, the network is classified into two
different categories which are wired network or wireless network.

1.1.1 Wired Networks

In a wired network, devices are kept intact by connecting each

other physically with cables (Stallings 2005). So, wired networks are
infrastructure based networks. The benefits of wired network are that
interference is very limited and more secured. On the other hand it has the
disadvantage of data transmission over limited distance and as well the
disadvantage of not being feasible to lay cables in some areas like dense
forests, ice capped mountains etc.

1.1.2 Wireless Networks

Wireless network is a network that uses high frequency radio waves

to transmit data between nodes rather than by cables which are used in wired
networks. The interference could be higher when compared to wired network,
but it provides a wide range of communication. On wireless network being
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insecure there are various encryption standards that make wireless as secured
as the wired ones. The greater mobility advantage of wireless network offsets
the performance disadvantage over the wired. The wireless network has two
possibilities of existence (Schiller 2001), infrastructure based and
infrastructure-less.

1.1.2.1 Infrastructure based networks

In Infrastructure based wireless network, communication between

wireless nodes takes place only through access points. The access points
negotiate all wireless traffic. The disadvantage of infrastructure based
network is that the deployment of access point is not feasible all the time and
each access point has limited transmission range. The best example for
infrastructure based network is the cellular network where cellular towers are
installed to communicate with each other.

1.1.2.2 Ad-hoc networks

The ad-hoc network is a self configuring network which does not

rely on any pre-existing infrastructure. Hence it is termed as infrastructure
less network. Each node in an ad-hoc network participates to route packets to
other nodes which are dynamically established. The ad-hoc network has the
advantage of getting deployed easily and is useful when infrastructure is
impractical to be deployed. The ad-hoc network is further classified into two
main categories which are wireless sensor networks (Koushanfar et al. 2005)
(Holland et al. 1999) and Mobile Ad-hoc Networks (MANETs).

The two categories of Ad-hoc network have similarities as well as

differences. The similarities are listed below
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 Distributed Networks: Since sensor nodes are error prone, to

provide reliable delivery of data packets WSN should be
distributed.

 Multi-hop Routing: Depends on neighbor nodes to relay

packets between source and sink.

 Battery operated: Energy conservation plays a major role in

both networks.

 Poor Channel quality: Since these networks use wireless

medium for communication, they are prone to interference.

The differences are

 The nodes in WSN interact with the environment rather than

with human beings as in MANETs.

 Network density: The number of nodes and the density of

deployment in the sensing field for WSNs are higher in
magnitude when compared with MANETs (Carlos & Dharna
2007). This creates large overhead and difficulty in
maintaining global identification.

 Fault tolerance: Sensor nodes are prone to frequent failure

due to their nature of application when compared with
MANETs.

1.2 WIRELESS SENSOR NETWORKS

With recent advancements in micro electro mechanical system

(MEMS) technology and processor design, manufacturing of tiny, low cost
sensors has become technically and economically feasible (Akyildiz et al.
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2003). Each sensor node has sensing, processing and communicating ability
(Haenselmann 2005). The sensor node that is deployed in a field of interest
can sense specific environment phenomenon like temperature, humidity,
acoustic, vibration, pressure, light intensity, magnetic field etc (Akyildiz et al.
2002). WSNs may consists of different types of sensor such as seismic,
magnetic, thermal, visual, infrared and acoustic capable to monitor a wide
variety of ambient conditions (Megerian et al. 2005). But sensor nodes should
be capable of withstanding harsh environmental conditions. Due to their small
size, the nodes have limited battery power, processing speed, storage capacity
and bandwidth. Because of limited battery power, the lifetime of a sensor
node is dependent on its capacity to conserve power. Therefore, large
numbers of sensor nodes are deployed. These nodes use wireless
communication to fulfil their tasks by reporting event by them self or directly
to the base station (BS). The base station acts as a gateway between sensor
node and end user (Lewis 2004).

Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) is defined as a collection of

individual sensor nodes that are scattered in a physical space, organized into a
cooperative network (Romer & Mattern 2004), able to interact with their
environment by sensing and controlling environmental and physical
parameters proactively (Uthra & Kasmir Raja 2012) ( Holger Karl & Andreas
Wiling 2005). Proactive computing help the sensor network to access data
from an inaccessible location.

The wireless communication technology has made WSN possible

in a wide range of real time environmental monitoring applications (Torfs et
al. 2013). The network architecture needs to be modified to meet the specific
needs of sensor nodes. There are many technical difficulties which need to be
overcome before WSN can be practically used. The nodes have to meet the
requirements that come from the specific application such that they might
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have to be smaller in size, cheap, and energy efficient, they have to be

equipped with the right sensors, the necessary computation and memory
resources, and they need adequate communication facilities.

1.2.1 WSN Characteristics

Unlike traditional network, sensor network are designed to cope

with various challenges. WSN has several inherent characteristics as
described below

 Energy constrained: Sensor nodes are very tiny and deployed

in remote unmanned location. So nodes have to rely on a
limited battery power since possibility of replacement of
batteries is not practical.

 Application specific: WSN support different application that

ranges from military to home and has varying application
requirement. Therefore it is difficult to design a particular
protocol design for different types of application scenarios.

 Dynamic topology: Due to the nature of nodes being mobile in

WSN and as well the node failure due to drained energy the
network is dynamic.

 Multi-hop communication: Since sensor nodes are

geographically placed very close to each other, multi-hop
communication is more suitable for WSNs. Multi-hop
communication requires lower transmission power than that of
single-hop communication. This helps to overcome signal
propagation effects experienced due to long distance wireless
communication in WSNs.
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 Fault tolerance: It is the ability to sustain network

functionalities without any interruption due to sensor node
failures as a result of physical damaged, malfunction or
interrupted wireless communication. To tolerate such failures
and to provide reliability, numbers of redundant nodes are
deployed in WSNs (Hoblos et al. 2000).

 In-network data processing: Redundant nodes in WSN always

generate large volume of data to detect a reliable event. To
reduce such data, aggregation technique must be adopted in
each node.

 Scalability & Self-configuration: Scalability refers to the

ability to accommodate the change in network size. The
employed architectures and protocols should be able to
withstand a number of sensor nodes. This can be done in two
ways, either by increasing the density of the network or by
adding resources to a single sensor node (Michael et al. 2007).
Scalability is based on the application in which the sensor
nodes are deployed (Shih et al. 2001). Sensor network
configure most of its operational parameters autonomously.

 Physical hindrance: The quality of signal gets degraded due to

hidden terminal collisions and many far away transmissions
that interfere and corrupt packets.

Thus protocols designed for WSN should consider all these

characteristic features so that network becomes operational for longer period
of time.
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1.2.2 Sensor Network Architecture

Figure 1.1 shows a schematic diagram of simple sensor network

communication architecture. In WSNs, sensor field comprises of randomly
distributed sensor nodes with limited capabilities. Each sensor node has the
ability to sense data and route it to powerful sink or base station through
intermediate nodes using multi-hop communication. Then the sink can link
with the task manager through internet or satellite for processing the sensed
data.

Internet &
Sensor field Satellite
Sink

Sensor nodes

Task manager

Figure 1. 1 Sensor network communication architecture

The Figure 1.2 depicts a generic protocol stack for sensor network.
It contains application layer, transport layer, network layer, data link layer,
physical layer, power management plane, mobility management plane and
task management plane (Qinghua Wang & Ilangko Balasingham 2010).
Depending on the intended sensing task various application softwares
including application processing, external query processing, data aggregation
are developed and deployed in the application layer. The transport layer is
required to access flow of data over internet or other external networks. It
includes data dissemination and accumulation, caching and congestion
control. The network layer helps in routing of data obtained from the transport
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layer. It also has adaptive topology management and topological routing. Data
link layer avoids collision with neighbor node’s broadcast. Physical layer
provides comprehensive modulation, transmission and receiving methods.

Task Management Plane

Mobility Management Plane
Power Management Plane
Application Layer

Transport Layer

Network Layer

Data Link Layer

Physical Layer

Figure 1.2 Generic protocol stack for sensor network

Moreover the management planes control task, mobility and power

distribution among the sensor nodes. These planes provide the sensor nodes in
organizing the sensing task and minimizes the overall power consumption.

The central element of WSNs is sensor node. Figure 1.3 shows the
typical architecture of a sensor node. Each sensor node comprises of four
basic components: sensing unit, processing unit, transceiver unit and power
unit. Depending on the application, sensor node may also have additional unit
such as location finding system, mobilizing unit and power generator.
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Position Finding System Mobilizer

Sensing Unit Processing Unit

Transmissio
Sensors Processo
I/O n Unit
r
ADC Memory
Transceiver

Power
Power Unit Generator

Figure 1.3 Architecture of a typical sensor node

Sensing unit: It comprises of number of sub units, each includes

two components: a sensors and an Analog to Digital Converter (ADC). Sensor
is responsible for monitoring and gathering physical phenomenon from the
surrounding environment such as temperature, humidity, pressure, acoustic
light etc. The Analog signals produced by the sensor are converted into
equivalent digital signal by ADC and is fed into the processing unit.

Processing unit: The two main parts of processing units are

processor and storage. Processor allows coordination and collaboration of the
sensor nodes to do sensing and computational task. The processing unit is
associated with storage unit. The storage unit consists of program and data
memory. Program memory stores the instructions which are executed by the
processor and data memory store raw and processed sensor data.

Transceiver: Communication between sensor nodes is performed

by transceiver unit. It is responsible for the transmission and reception of data
to and fro between sensor nodes in a predefined pattern.
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Power unit: It is one of the most important components of a

wireless sensor node. It provides power to all the other associated units. It is
supported by irreplaceable batteries with limited power capacity, but other
power sources are also possible.

1.2.3 WSN Applications

WSN have the capability to detect, track or classify in a physical

environment. Applications using WSN are of wide range (Watteyne & Pister
2011). Few of them are briefed below

Military Application: Sensor networks were first developed by

researchers at the Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA
2009). WSN is widely used in battle field surveillance by military.

Environmental monitoring: WSN are used to monitor a variety of

environmental characteristics such as temperature, barometric pressure,
humidity, etc over a significantly longer period of time (Valverde et al. 2012).
Typically WSNs are also used in air pollution monitoring, land slide
detection, water quality monitoring, forest fire detection and natural disaster
prevention (Cao et al. 2012).

Industrial monitoring: WSNs are used in maintaining the machine

based on its condition (Hodge et al. 2015) (Fontana et al. 2012). This is done
by monitoring the vibration patterns in the machine over a period of time. The
nodes can also be placed in locations where it is not possible to reach. This
offers huge cost savings.

Medicine and health care: In health care WSNs are of two types
wearable and implanted. Wearable sensors are at the surface of the human
body and the implanted are those that are inside the human body (Movassaghi
et al. 2014; Pandian et al. 2008). Typically WSNs are used to locate a person
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or monitor a patient. It can also be used to measure a person’s temperature,

blood pressure and various other health parameters.

Telematics: These are sensor networks with nodes scattered in the

streets or roads to collect information related to traffic conditions. This helps
in providing an intelligent driving direction, helping with traffic jams ahead.

1.2.4 Research Issues

Due to the unique characteristics mentioned above with respect to

different application, WSNs have various challenges and research issues
(Gowrishankar et al. 2008). The issues that affect the design and performance
of WSN are Hardware, Operating system, Wireless radio support,
Deployment, Localization, Synchronization, Calibration, Medium access
layer (MAC) layer, Network layer Transport layer, Data aggregation and data
dissemination, Data base centric and querying, Architecture, Programming
model ,Middleware ,Quality of service and Security (Zheng & Jamalipour
2009).

The most important of them is the issue in transport layer which

provides end-to-end reliable communication. The various research issues for
transport layer protocol are

Transmission of fragmented messages: At the transmitter side,

messages are fragmented into segments before transmission. Similarly at the
receiver side, transport protocol must ensure orderly transmission of the
fragmented segments.

Reliability: Under extreme condition, transport protocol should

deliver data from sensor node to sink with a minimal delay. Transport
protocol should provide event to sink reliability instead of end-to-end
reliability as in traditional network for WSN.
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End-to-end communication: Transport protocol must ensure reliable

arrival of packets. It should also able to support both upstream and
downstream data transmission. Thus it needs high data rate sensors to capture
and transmit data descriptions of what is sensed. Data from nearby sensor
nodes have to be detected and removed.

Node Failures: Need to discover techniques to eliminate energy

inefficiencies since each node has limited processing, storage and bandwidth
that shorten the lifetime of the network. Battery power depletion causes node
failure. Clustering and In-Network aggregation conserve energy of the
sensors.

Congestion control: Limited network communication bandwidth

results in congestion which interrupts normal data transmission and also leads
to packet loss. Transport protocol must recover packet loss as a result of
buffer overflow. Transport protocols for WSN should avoid packet loss since
loss change into wastage of energy. To avoid packet loss, transport protocol
should use appropriate congestion control and trigger congestion avoidance
before congestion actually occurs.

1.2.5 WSN Challenges

The sensor nodes within the WSNs are energy constrained due to
their nature of being small and unmanned. Hence, it is difficult to change or
recharge batteries, when energy is drained. Too many sensor nodes being
drained makes the WSNs to fail. The lifetime of a WSN depends solely on the
energy consumption of sensor nodes in WSN. In general, the energy spent on
sensing and computing is significantly less than the energy spent on
communicating. However analysis has proved that energy loss is heavy
during congestion wherein communication happens more. Congestion is a real
concern in WSN.
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Congestion control using traditional transport protocol can not be

implemented directly in WSN. Transmission control protocol (TCP) is the
widely used Transport Protocol. The reasons behind the traditional transport
protocol not suited for WSN are as below

 Difficulty in implementing, as flow control or congestion

control mechanism to sensor nodes which are far away from
the sink.

 It is not necessary to achieve an end-to-end guaranteed

transmission for event driven sensor network as in TCP.

 Event driven sensor network should have minimum overhead.

 TCP requires three-way handshake which is a large overhead

for small volume of sensed data in event based sensor
network.

 End-to-end congestion control in TCP results longer response

time, low throughput and low utilization of wireless channels.

 End-to-end acknowledgement (ACK) and retransmission in

TCP results in longer transmission time and increases the
longevity of RTT.

 TCP deals unfairly by providing opportunities to sensor nodes

which are closer to sink to transmit and drain out the energy
and disconnects the nodes which are farther away.

WSN requires a protocol which provides greater congestion control

thus saving energy drain increasing the lifetime.
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1.3 CONGESTION CONTROL

Event based sensor network typically operate under light load and
suddenly become active in response to monitored event. When large numbers
of sensor nodes are active, then the data traffic generated by the nodes grows.
Then the offered traffic load exceeds the available capacity and the network
becomes congested. This results in the generation of large, sudden and
correlated impulses of data from source sensors to sink. During congestion,
nodes decide to drop packets randomly which significantly disrupts the
performance of sensor network. Also, due to dynamic topology, limited
storage and many-to-one traffic pattern, data transmission delay is higher than
that in traditional wired networks. Congestion control provides an attractive
solution for this problem. Therefore, Controlled packet drop and decreased
delay have paramount importance when wireless sensor networks are used.
Controlling congestion is a combined responsibility of network and transport
layer. Congestion is detected at the network layer but it is caused by traffic
sent into the network by the transport layer. The only effective way to control
congestion is to send packets slowly into the network from transport layer.

1.3.1 Sources and Causes of Congestion

The main sources of congestion include:

i. Buffer occupancy: Incoming and outgoing data rate and

exponential weighted moving averages (EWMA) are used for
calculating buffer occupancy. When the average buffer
occupancy exceeds the specified threshold then congestion is
detected.

ii. Channel contention: In WSN, many sensor nodes use the same
radio channel without pre-coordination. It occurs between
different flows and different packets of flows then channel
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utilization is calculated based on channel busy time. If the

channel utilization factor exceeds above the certain threshold
limit then congestion is detected.

iii. Interference: It is caused by simultaneous transmissions along

multiple paths of the network among the close proximity
nodes.

iv. Packet Collisions: It occurs when more than one sensor node
attempt to send a packet on a network at the same time. It
indicates lower level congestion and leads to packet drops.

v. Many-to-one traffic: Nature of event communication between

multiple sources and single sink causes bottleneck around the
sink.

vi. Concurrent Transmission: The traffic flows from two or more

sensor node intersect at some nodes induces congestion.

vii. Reporting rate: Changes in reporting rate causes network

congestion even if the local contention is minimized.

viii. Addition or removal of sensor nodes: Higher number of sensor

nodes increase event reliability but simultaneously increases
congestion.

Congestion is detrimental to sensor networks because it lowers the

throughput called fidelity. It also causes waste of communication resources,
waste of energy, and hampers event detection reliability at the sink. The main
causes of network congestion includes

i. Buffer overflow: It occurs when the number of incoming packets

is more than the available buffer space.
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ii. Channel quality: Radio links are not shielded from each other.
Time varying channel quality degrades the link capacity which
causes congestion and leads to packet drop.

iii. Loss rate: During event occurrence, more packets travelling

across a network but fail to reach sink then packet loss rate
raises. Increase in packet loss or drop is a typical cause of
network congestion. It is calculated as a percentage of packets
dropped with respect to packets sent.

iv. Increased delay: Congestion level significantly affects queuing

delay in WSN which in turn affects data transmission delay.

v. Utilization of energy: Packet retransmission in WSN leads to

more energy consumption.

1.3.2 Congestion Types

Congestion in WSNs are classified into two major types. They are
elements triggering congestion and source triggering congestion as shown in
Figure 1.4 (Sergiou et al. 2014).

Congestion in WSNs

Elements triggering Source triggering

Node level Link level Source Sink Forwarder

Congestion Congestion Congestion Congestion Congestion

Figure 1.4 Congestion types in WSNs

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1.3.2.1 Elements triggering

The first category is elements triggering congestion in the network.

Further it is classified into node level congestion and link level congestion as
given in Figure 1.5.

Node level congestion: When a node receives packets with a higher

rate than it can transmit leads to packet drop. Packet drops are due to buffer
overflow and collision of packets in the medium. This type of congestion is
called persistent or node level congestion. During node level congestion,
packet arrival rate exceeds the packet service rate. It is highly prone to happen
at the sensor nodes near the sink which carries more upstream traffic. This
leads to retransmission and consumes more energy. It can be measured
proactively through increment of queue length when it exceeds certain
threshold limit (Samiullah et al. 2012).

Buffer Overflow Link Collision

(a) (b)

Figure 1.5 (a) Node level congestion and (b) Link level congestion

Link level congestion: When multiple active sensor nodes within

same transmission range attempt to seize the channel at the same time,
packets may tend to drop due to collision. This is termed as transient or link
level congestion. Link level congestion increases packet service time and
decreases link utilization and overall throughput (Wang et al. 2007). Explicit
local synchronization among neighboring nodes can reduce transient type of
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congestion. Both node level and link level congestion have direct impact on
energy efficiency. Therefore they must be controlled efficiently.

1.3.2.1 Source triggering

The next category is source triggering congestion in the network.

Further it is divided into source congestion, sink congestion and forwarder
congestion (Charalambos et al. 2014).

Source Congestion: In densely deployed environment, on

occurrence of any event the nodes within that area detect it. These nodes
become a source to transmit the packet. When there are too many source
nodes start sending packets at the same time a hot spot zone is formed around
the sources. A large number of packet drops will occur in this hot spot zone.
This type of congestion is called source congestion. It can be alleviated either
by traffic or resource control approach.

Sink Congestion: On frequent occurrence of any event, the volume

of traffic around the sink becomes high. A hotspot around the sink is created.
The packets get dropped near the sink. This is termed as sink congestion. The
energy lost by the nodes around the sink is huge and they get worn out. This
makes rest of the nodes inaccessible to the sink. The effective way of
eliminating sink congestion is by deploying multiple sinks which are scattered
uniformly around the sensing field.

Forwarder congestion: On detection of event, the source node

forwards the packets to sink via forwarding nodes. The network has multiple
paths which interconnect with one another. This creates an intersection which
possibly becomes a hotspot. It is called forwarder congestion. Forwarder
congestion is more when compared to the other two.
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1.3.3 Mechanisms for Congestion Control

Congestion in WSNs has a direct impact on energy efficiency, it

must be efficiently controlled either through congestion avoidance or
mitigation protocols. Congestion avoidance is a proactive method which
prevents congestion before it occurs whereas congestion mitigation is a
reactive method which reduces congestion after its occurrence. These
protocols comprises congestion detection, congestion notification and
congestion control mechanisms. Proactive method of congestion control is
preferred in WSNs. (Wei-wei et al. 2009).

1.3.3.1 Congestion detection

Congestion detection algorithm should detect packet loss due to

insufficient bandwidth not due to transmission error (Jin et al. 2004). Packet
loss at the drop-tail of the node’s buffer is inferred and used to signal that the
network has become congested. The alternate methods to detect congestion
are wireless channel load, packet service time, round trip delay and
scheduling rate.

1.3.3.2 Congestion notification

Once congestion is detected, congestion information is propagated

to source or upstream node to inform about their congestion state. This helps
the source or upstream node to regulate its traffic rate. Congestion notification
may explicit or be implicit (Zheng & Jamalipour 2009). Explicit congestion
notification (ECN) uses extra control messages to notify congestion
information. In this case, intermediate nodes set bits on the packets that
experience congestion to warn the sources to slow down, but they do not tell
them how much to slow down. Explicit congestion notification inevitably
introduces additional control overhead to the already congested network.
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On the other hand, Implicit Congestion Notification (ICN) is the

method which piggybacks congestion information in the data packets that are
being transmitted. The node either receives such data packet or overhear
packet can learn the congestion information. The lost packet act as a implicit
signal for congestion control. In ICN, use of an additional control packet is
avoided.

1.3.3.3 Congestion control

Once congestion notification is reached, then apply either resource

or traffic control approach to control congestion. Resource control approach
either increases the network resources or creates alternative path to forward
the excess packets from sensor nodes to sink. Otherwise nodes can soon
exhaust the power and create routing holes in the network. To addresses these
challenges a number of traffic based congestion control algorithms have been
proposed. Traffic control method control congestion by reducing traffic rate
either at the source node or at the intermediate node or attempt to find another
path until congestion is removed. This reduces the amount of bandwidth
consumption in the node. Traffic control approaches utilize either end-to end
or hop-by-hop or both control techniques (Wan et al. 2003) (Ee & Bajcsy
2004). The sink to regulate exact rate adjustment happens in the source node
is termed as end-to-end control.

Following are the significants of end-to-end control

i. Sources node caches the packet.

ii. Simplifies design at intermediate nodes.

iii. Slow response.

iv. High Round Trip Time (RTT).

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In hop-by-hop control, rate adjustments are done in intermediate

nodes which may diffuse the whole network.

Following are the significants of hop-by-hop control

i. Intermediate node caches the packet.

ii. Faster response.

iii. Difficult to adjust packet forwarding rate at intermediate nodes.

1.4 RESEARCH OBJECTIVE

The main objective of the present research work is to develop an

efficient congestion control protocol for WSN. Congestion control plays a
major role in improving network performance in any ideal environment (Kafi
et al. 2014). Congestion has direct impact on energy efficiency and decreases
the lifetime of network. Thereby hinders fair event detection and reliable data
transmission.

In this research work, we propose Priority based energy efficient

congestion control protocols that include congestion control protocols with
and without clustering using priority and energy efficient routing protocol.

A good congestion control protocol (Li & Feng 2010) should

provide the following facilities to enable reliable data transmission during
critical situation in wireless sensor network:

 Congestion avoidance algorithm is efficient enough to detect

congestion and the mechanisms that avoid congestion (Misra,
S et al. 2009).
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 There should be an efficient congestion mitigating algorithm

to detect congestion and notify congestion information to rest
of the network when queue space is not enough to
accommodate new packet.

 A congestion control method is used to mitigate the effects of

congestion.

On the other hand, a good congestion control protocol using

clustering (Karenos et al. 2005) (Velmani & Kaarthick 2015) (Mian et al.
2014) for WSN should take into account the following contexts:

 Congestion information should not be entertained in all the

sensor nodes.

 Only selected nodes should be encouraged to maintain

congestion information.

A good energy efficient routing (Uthra et al. 2015) protocol for

WSN should address the following issues:

 Utilize minimum energy to maintain local connectivity

information in WSN.

 Route data packets along the stable path.

1.5 ORGANIZATION OF THE THESIS

The thesis is organized in six chapters.

Chapter one includes the general classification of networks and in

particular the evolution of wireless sensor networks. It covers the
characteristics of WSNs, advantages and challenges in using a WSN, various
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applications of WSN and the wide scope of research issues pertaining to WSN
environments. It also discusses the causes and effects of congestion control in
WSN, congestion types and mechanisms used for congestion control.

Chapter two presents a detailed review of the existing works for

congestion control with and without clustering and energy efficient routing.
The issues related to the existing work are also presented in this thesis.

Chapter three explains three different proposed congestion control

protocol along with their congestion avoidance, congestion mitigation and
congestion control algorithms. First and foremost is Priority based Congestion
Detection and Avoidance (P-CDA) protocol. P-CDA is a traffic based
congestion control protocol which maximizes the number of priority packets
delivered to sink during congestion. The next proposed protocol, Data Priority
Based Congestion Detection and Control (DP-CDC) is also a traffic based
protocol. It considers mean data arrival rate and virtual queue length for
congestion estimation. An Optimized Priority Assignment Scheme (OPAS) is
a resource control protocol which forwards packets based on multipath
routing. Finally, this chapter also compares the performance evaluation of the
proposed congestion control protocol with existing protocol.

Chapter four discusses the Priority based Congestion Control

Dynamic Clustering protocol (PCCDC). It computes congestion at intra and
inter cluster level using linear and binary feedback method. Each mobile node
within the cluster has an appropriate queue model for scheduling prioritized
packet during congestion without drop or delay. It aims at mitigating
congestion by opting for the best path. This chapter finally derives the energy
model of a node.

Chapter five focuses on An Energy Efficient Routing Protocol

using Optimized Local Connectivity Approach (EER-OLC). In this approach
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energy efficiency in a resource constrained environment (WSN) is achieved

by optimizing the number of control packets used for maintaining local
connectivity.

Chapter six concludes by showing how the research goals have

been met. It also provides deep insight into future research work.