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EDGM: Energy Efficient Data Gathering with Data Mules in Wireless Sensor Networks

Authors:
Nour Brinis
Leila Azouz Saidane
Pascale Minet

Keywords: wireless sensor networks; energy efficiency; data mule; node activity scheduling; delay tolerant network

Abstract:
This paper deals with prolonging the lifetime of a wireless sensor network by exploiting mobility. We consider data gathering applications where each event occurring in the monitored area must be reported to the sink. The target applications are assumed to be delay tolerant. We define the network lifetime as the time until coverage loss. We propose an energy efficient strategy to collect data from sensor nodes, using data mules. This strategy has the advantage of not requiring network connectivity. Data mules are responsible to carry data to the sink, to schedule sensor nodes activities and to replace energy constrained nodes. They take advantage of energy harvesting, from a generating power terminal, in order to achieve their mission. We simulate the proposed data collection strategy with the NS2 simulator and derive the network lifetime, the energy consumption of sensor nodes and the rate of collected data meeting a given delay. Furthermore, this study leads us to determine the optimal number of data mules needed to meet a given delivery delay deadline.

Pages: 277 to 283

Copyright: Copyright (c) IARIA, 2012

Publication date: August 19, 2012

Published in: conference

ISSN: 2308-4405

ISBN: 978-1-61208-207-3

Location: Rome, Italy

Dates: from August 19, 2012 to August 24, 2012