Traffic Classifier for Heterogeneous and Cooperative Routing through Wireless Sensor Networks

Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) are networks composed of autonomous devices manufactured to solve a specific problem, with limited computational capabilities and resource-constrained (e.g. limited battery). WSN are used to monitor physical or environmental conditions within an area (e.g. temperature, humidity). The popularity of the WSN is growing, precisely due to the wide range of sensors available. As a result, these networks are being deployed as part of several infrastructures. However, sensors are designed to collaborate only with sensors of the same type. In this sense, taking advantage of the heterogeneity of WSN in order to provide common services, like it is the case of routing, has not been sufficiently considered. For this reason, in this paper we propose a routing protocol based on traffic classification and role-assignment to enable heterogeneous WSN for cooperation. Our approach considers both QoS requirements and lifetime maximization to allow the coexistence of different applications in the heterogeneous network infrastructure.