A Q-Learning Based Power-Aware Data Dissemination Protocol for Wireless Sensor Networks

In order to improve the lifetime of wireless sensor networks (WSNs), a power-aware data dissemination protocol based on Q-learning is proposed in this paper, called PADD-QL. When looking for the data transmission path, the proposed scheme can select the dissemination nodes along the vertical, horizontal, and diagonal directions to establish the data transmission path. In addition, the proposed scheme can find an optimal data transmission path from the source node to the sink by using Q-learning. In terms of the number of rounds executed, the performance gains of PADD-QL over TTDD and PADD are approximately 66% and 35%, respectively. Simulation experiments confirm that the proposed solution can significantly improve the lifetime of WSNs.