From carbon nanotubes and silicate layers to graphene platelets for polymer nanocomposites

In spite of extensive studies conducted on carbon nanotubes and silicate layers for their polymer-based nanocomposites, the rise of graphene now provides a more promising candidate due to its exceptionally high mechanical performance and electrical and thermal conductivities. The present study developed a facile approach to fabricate epoxy–graphene nanocomposites by thermally expanding a commercial product followed by ultrasonication and solution-compounding with epoxy, and investigated their morphologies, mechanical properties, electrical conductivity and thermal mechanical behaviour. Graphene platelets (GnPs) of 3.5

An energy scaled and expanded vector-based forwarding scheme for industrial underwater acoustic sensor networks with sink mobility

Industrial Underwater Acoustic Sensor Networks (IUASNs) come with intrinsic challenges like long propagation delay, small bandwidth, large energy consumption, three-dimensional deployment, and high deployment and battery replacement cost. Any routing strategy proposed for IUASN must take into account these constraints. The vector based forwarding schemes in literature forward data packets to sink using holding time and location information of the sender, forwarder, and sink nodes. Holding time suppresses data broadcasts; however, it fails to keep energy and delay fairness in the network. To achieve this, we propose an Energy Scaled and Expanded Vector-Based Forwarding (ESEVBF) scheme. ESEVBF uses the residual energy of the node to scale and vector pipeline distance ratio to expand the holding time. Resulting scaled and expanded holding time of all forwarding nodes has a significant difference to avoid multiple forwarding, which reduces energy consumption and energy balancing in the network. If a node has a minimum holding time among its neighbors, it shrinks the holding time and quickly forwards the data packets upstream. The performance of ESEVBF is analyzed through in network scenario with and without node mobility to ensure its effectiveness. Simulation results show that ESEVBF has low energy consumption, reduces forwarded data copies, and less end-to-end delay

Unified clustering and communication protocol for wireless sensor networks

In this paper we present an energy-efficient cross layer protocol for providing application specific reservations in wireless senor networks called the “Unified Clustering and Communication Protocol ” (UCCP). Our modular cross layered framework satisfies three wireless sensor network requirements, namely, the QoS requirement of heterogeneous applications, energy aware clustering and data forwarding by relay sensor nodes. Our unified design approach is motivated by providing an integrated and viable solution for self organization and end-to-end communication is wireless sensor networks. Dynamic QoS based reservation guarantees are provided using a reservation-based TDMA approach. Our novel energy-efficient clustering approach employs a multi-objective optimization technique based on OR (operations research) practices. We adopt a simple hierarchy in which relay nodes forward data messages from cluster head to the sink, thus eliminating the overheads needed to maintain a routing protocol. Simulation results demonstrate that UCCP provides an energy-efficient and scalable solution to meet the application specific QoS demands in resource constrained sensor nodes. Index Terms — wireless sensor networks, unified communication, optimization, clustering and quality of service

Low Power, Low Delay: Opportunistic Routing meets Duty Cycling

Traditionally, routing in wireless sensor networks consists of two steps: First, the routing protocol selects a next hop, and, second, the MAC protocol waits for the intended destination to wake up and receive the data. This design makes it difficult to adapt to link dynamics and introduces delays while waiting for the next hop to wake up. In this paper we introduce ORW, a practical opportunistic routing scheme for wireless sensor networks. In a dutycycled setting, packets are addressed to sets of potential receivers and forwarded by the neighbor that wakes up first and successfully receives the packet. This reduces delay and energy consumption by utilizing all neighbors as potential forwarders. Furthermore, this increases resilience to wireless link dynamics by exploiting spatial diversity. Our results show that ORW reduces radio duty-cycles on average by 50% (up to 90% on individual nodes) and delays by 30% to 90% when compared to the state of the art

Energy-Efficient Packet Forwarding Scheme Based on Fuzzy Decision-Making in Underwater Sensor Networks

Underwater Wireless Sensor Networks (UWSNs) are subjected to a multitude of real-life challenges. Maintaining adequate power consumption is one of the critical ones, for obvious reasons. This includes proper energy consumption due to nodes close to and far from the sink node (gateway), which affect the overall energy efficiency of the system. These wireless sensors gather and route the data to the onshore base station through the gateway at the sea surface. However, finding an optimum and efficient path from the source node to the gateway is a challenging task. The common reasons for the loss of energy in existing routing protocols for underwater are (1) a node shut down due to battery drainage, (2) packet loss or packet collision which causes re-transmission and hence affects the performance of the system, and (3) inappropriate selection of sensor node for forwarding data. To address these issues, an energy efficient packet forwarding scheme using fuzzy logic is proposed in this work. The proposed protocol uses three metrics: number of hops to reach the gateway node, number of neighbors (in the transmission range of a node) and the distance (or its equivalent received signal strength indicator, RSSI) in a 3D UWSN architecture. In addition, the performance of the system is also tested with adaptive and non-adaptive transmission ranges and scalable number of nodes to see the impact on energy consumption and number of hops. Simulation results show that the proposed protocol performs better than other existing techniques or in terms of parameters used in this scheme

A Review of the Energy Efficient and Secure Multicast Routing Protocols for Mobile Ad hoc Networks

This paper presents a thorough survey of recent work addressing energy efficient multicast routing protocols and secure multicast routing protocols in Mobile Ad hoc Networks (MANETs). There are so many issues and solutions which witness the need of energy management and security in ad hoc wireless networks. The objective of a multicast routing protocol for MANETs is to support the propagation of data from a sender to all the receivers of a multicast group while trying to use the available bandwidth efficiently in the presence of frequent topology changes. Multicasting can improve the efficiency of the wireless link when sending multiple copies of messages by exploiting the inherent broadcast property of wireless transmission. Secure multicast routing plays a significant role in MANETs. However, offering energy efficient and secure multicast routing is a difficult and challenging task. In recent years, various multicast routing protocols have been proposed for MANETs. These protocols have distinguishing features and use different mechanismsComment: 15 page

A novel cooperative opportunistic routing scheme for underwater sensor networks

Increasing attention has recently been devoted to underwater sensor networks (UWSNs) because of their capabilities in the ocean monitoring and resource discovery. UWSNs are faced with different challenges, the most notable of which is perhaps how to efficiently deliver packets taking into account all of the constraints of the available acoustic communication channel. The opportunistic routing provides a reliable solution with the aid of intermediate nodes’ collaboration to relay a packet toward the destination. In this paper, we propose a new routing protocol, called opportunistic void avoidance routing (OVAR), to address the void problem and also the energy-reliability trade-off in the forwarding set selection. OVAR takes advantage of distributed beaconing, constructs the adjacency graph at each hop and selects a forwarding set that holds the best trade-off between reliability and energy efficiency. The unique features of OVAR in selecting the candidate nodes in the vicinity of each other leads to the resolution of the hidden node problem. OVAR is also able to select the forwarding set in any direction from the sender, which increases its flexibility to bypass any kind of void area with the minimum deviation from the optimal path. The results of our extensive simulation study show that OVAR outperforms other protocols in terms of the packet delivery ratio, energy consumption, end-to-end delay, hop count and traversed distance