Energy-aware routing apparatus and method

An energy-aware routing apparatus for use with a multi-hop system comprising at least one terminal, at least one relay, and at least one base station, the apparatus comprising:

• a transceiving unit that receives a route request message including energy-aware information from each of the at least one terminal or relay, the energy-aware information comprising battery information, the battery information indicating a battery power status of each of the at least one terminal as at least one of a high level, a medium level, a low level, and a critical level;
• and
• a control unit that receives the route request message from the transceiving unit and selects a communication path from at least one configurable path by using the energy-aware information.

An energy-aware routing apparatus for use with a multi-hop system comprising at least one terminal, at least one relay, and at least one base station, the apparatus comprising:

• a transceiving unit that receives a route request message and forwards the route request message according to a first control signal;
• and
• a control unit that receives the route request message from the transceiving unit, checks an amount of battery power remaining, generates the first control signal which controls a retransmission of the route request message according to the amount of battery power remaining, and outputs the first control signal to the transceiving unit.

An energy-aware routing method which is applied to a multi-hop system comprising at least one terminal, at least one relay, and at least one base station, the method comprising:

• receiving a route request message including energy-aware information from each of the at least one terminal and relay, the energy-aware information including battery information, the battery information indicating a battery power status of each of the at least one terminal as at least one of a high level, a medium level, a low level, and a critical level;
• and
• selecting a communication path from at least one configurable path by using the energy-aware information.

A non-transitory computer readable medium of instructions that controls a transceiving unit and a control unit of a multi-hop system comprising at least one terminal, at least one relay, and at least one base station, the non-transitory computer readable medium of instructions comprising:

• a first set of instructions that controls the transceiving unit to receive a route request message including energy-aware information from each of the at least one terminal and relay, the energy-aware information including battery information, the battery information indicating a battery power status of each of the at least one terminal as at least one of a high level, a medium level, a low level, and a critical level;
• and
• a second set of instructions that controls the control unit to select a communication path from at least one configurable path by using the energy-aware information.