{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,2,1]],"date-time":"2026-02-01T04:23:29Z","timestamp":1769919809095,"version":"3.49.0"},"reference-count":34,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"2","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2013,2,4]],"date-time":"2013-02-04T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1359936000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/3.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Sensors"],"abstract":"<jats:p>The Internet of Things (IoT) is attracting considerable attention from the universities, industries, citizens and governments for applications, such as healthcare, environmental monitoring and smart buildings. IoT enables network connectivity between smart devices at all times, everywhere, and about everything. In this context, Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) play an important role in increasing the ubiquity of networks with smart devices that are low-cost and easy to deploy. However, sensor nodes are restricted in terms of energy, processing and memory. Additionally, low-power radios are very sensitive to noise, interference and multipath distortions. In this context, this article proposes a routing protocol based on Routing by Energy and Link quality (REL) for IoT applications. To increase reliability and energy-efficiency, REL selects routes on the basis of a proposed end-to-end link quality estimator mechanism, residual energy and hop count. Furthermore, REL proposes an event-driven mechanism to provide load balancing and avoid the premature energy depletion of nodes\/networks. Performance evaluations were carried out using simulation and testbed experiments to show the impact and benefits of REL in small and large-scale networks. The results show that REL increases the network lifetime and services availability, as well as the quality of service of IoT applications. It also provides an even distribution of scarce network resources and reduces the packet loss rate, compared with the performance of well-known protocols.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/s130201942","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2013,2,4]],"date-time":"2013-02-04T11:10:35Z","timestamp":1359976235000},"page":"1942-1964","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":105,"title":["A Routing Protocol Based on Energy and Link Quality for Internet of Things Applications"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"13","author":[{"given":"K\u00e1ssio","family":"Machado","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Federal University of Minas Gerais, Av. Antonio Carlos, 6627, CEP 31270-901, Belo Horizonte, Brazil"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-1119-2450","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Denis","family":"Ros\u00e1rio","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Federal University of Par\u00e1, Av. Augusto Corr\u00eaa, 01, CEP 66075-110, Bel\u00e9m, Brazil"},{"name":"Institute of Computer Science and Applied Mathematics, University of Bern, Neubr\u00fcckstrasse 10,3012, Bern, Switzerland"}]},{"given":"Eduardo","family":"Cerqueira","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Federal University of Par\u00e1, Av. Augusto Corr\u00eaa, 01, CEP 66075-110, Bel\u00e9m, Brazil"}]},{"given":"Antonio","family":"Loureiro","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Federal University of Minas Gerais, Av. Antonio Carlos, 6627, CEP 31270-901, Belo Horizonte, Brazil"}]},{"given":"Augusto","family":"Neto","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Federal University of Cear\u00e1, Campus do Pici, Bloco 942-A, CEP 60020-181, Fortaleza, Brazil"}]},{"given":"Jos\u00e9","family":"De Souza","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Federal University of Cear\u00e1, Campus do Pici, Bloco 942-A, CEP 60020-181, Fortaleza, Brazil"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2013,2,4]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"2787","DOI":"10.1016\/j.comnet.2010.05.010","article-title":"The internet of things: A survey","volume":"54","author":"Atzori","year":"2010","journal-title":"Comput. Netw."},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"393","DOI":"10.1016\/S1389-1286(01)00302-4","article-title":"Wireless sensor networks: A survey","volume":"38","author":"Akyildiz","year":"2002","journal-title":"Comput. 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