DEEP: A Distributed Energy Efficient Routing Protocol for Internet of Nano-Things

Nanotechnology offers transformative capabilities across healthcare, environmental monitoring, and industrial automation. When integrated with modern communication technologies, Wireless Nano Sensor Networks (WNSNs) form the Internet of Nano Things (IoNT), interconnecting nanoscale devices with conventional networks. Despite its potential, efficient routing in IoNT remains challenging due to severe energy constraints, limited processing, and high propagation losses in the terahertz (THz) band. This paper proposes the Distributed Energy-Efficient Protocol (DEEP), a lightweight routing scheme designed for IoNT-based WNSNs. DEEP balances simplicity, connectivity, and sustainability through adaptive retransmission control and a hybrid energy model combining environmental energy harvesting with wireless power transfer. Performance evaluation using the Nano-Sim module of the NS-3 simulator demonstrates that DEEP significantly extends network lifetime, reduces overall energy consumption, and maintains scalability and robust delivery performance with minimal communication overhead.