Performance Evaluation of Termite Hill Routing Algorithm on Mobile and Static Sources of RPMS

Remote Patient Monitoring System (RPMS) contains sensor nodes with limited power supplies, memory capacity, processing capability, and bandwidth. These sensor networks require multiple hops for event forwarding due to their high density and limited communication range. In RPMS research, metrics such as network lifetime, reliability, and quality of service are needed to be considered due to the requirements of the system. It is observed that nodes that are close to sink nodes run out of energy more quickly than those far away from sink nodes in static RPMS sensors. Nodes near sinks tend to consume more energy due to the need to forward all traffic generated by the nodes farther away to the sink thus affecting the network. There are several solutions that researchers have developed for improving the performance of static nodes, such as mobile sinks. As a result, most algorithms perform better when routing mobile sinks. It is crucial to identify how some algorithms will function when RPMS sources are mobile since they are becoming more portable. Accordingly, this paper evaluates the Termite Hill routing algorithm, which simulates the behavior of real termites on hill buildings. This algorithm is tested on static and mobile RPMS sources. Our research using the Routing Modeling Application Simulation Environment (RMASE) showed that our proposed routing algorithm is able to balance network traffic loads and prolong network lifetimes when tested in static RPMS sources. In mobile sources, this algorithm performed poorly, which presents a huge opportunity for improvement.