Abstract
One of the major challenges in a wireless sensor network (WSN) is to extend the network's lifetime by minimizing the energy consumption. One of the ways to do so is to reduce network congestion as it increases delays and introduces additional packet collisions- thus, adversely affecting network performance. In this paper, we analyze this issue in routing and take an evolutionary game theoretic approach to show how sensor nodes in a WSN could evolve their routing strategies to transmit data packets in an efficient and stable manner. We derive the equilibrium state for the routing game and prove that there is no mutant- an individual node that adopts another strategy to invade the evolutionary stable strategy (ESS). In addition, we introduce a replicator dynamic model to show the behavior of nodes with various strategies over time. The proposed equilibrium solution aims to alleviate congestion and thereby improves the network lifetime. Simulation results show that the proposed system is successful in converging strategy choices to ESS even under dynamic network conditions.