Integrating IEEE 802.11 technology and Wireless sensor networks using PORME routing protocol

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) provide an easy and simple way to control and monitor a wide variety of scenarios. Using WSNs with the IEEE 802.11 standard to transport biometric data can be appropriate because of its simplicity and low implementation costs. This article presents and defines the PORME protocol (Possible Minimum Energy Routes) as a hierarchical routing protocol which is based on the partitioning of the area to be monitored into sectors, each one with a Cluster Head (node responsible of the data collection from nodes in his sector). Cluster Head nodes are permanently powered and can redirect data traffic to one or more Sink nodes. Through 802.11, Sink nodes can build packets with all the payload together (measured data) and provide remote monitoring and control avoiding in place physical interaction for data analysis. Besides these benefits, sectoring minimizes the number of failures because the data of only one sector will be lost in case of Cluster Head failure. PORME protocol provides the handshake with Cluster Head of the shutdown of a member node that is in a low battery state. This feature will cause nodes and Cluster Head to reconfigure and rebuild routes of the network without the turned off node. In addition, PORME protocol provides scalability in number and evolution of the technology of Cluster Heads and Member Nodes.