On Network Lifetime Maximization in Wireless Sensor Networks with Sink Mobility

Abstract

On Network Lifetime Maximization in Wireless Sensor Networks with Sink Mobility Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) extend human capability to monitor and control the physical world, especially, in catastrophic/emergency situations where human engagement is too dangerous. There is a diverse range of WSN applications in terrestrial, underwater and health care domains. In this regard, the wireless sensors have significantly evolved over the last few decades in terms of circuitry miniaturization. However, small sized wireless sensors face the problem of limited battery/power capacity. Thus, energy efficient strategies are needed to prolong the lifetime of these networks. This dissertation, limited in scope to routing only, aims at energy efficient solutions to prolong the lifetime of terrestrial sensor networks (i.e., WSNs) and Underwater WSNs (UWSNs). In WSNs, we identify that uneven cluster size, random number of selected Cluster Heads (CHs), communication distance, and number of transmissions/receptions are mainly involved in energy consumption which lead to shortened network lifetime. As a solution, we present two proactive routing protocols for circular WSNs; Angular Multi-hop Distance based Clustering Network Transmission (AM-DisCNT) and improved AM-DisCNT (iAM-DisCNT). These two protocols are supported by linear programming models for information flow maximization and packet drop minimization. For reactive applications, we present four routing protocols; Hybrid Energy Efficient Reactive (HEER),Multi-hop Hybrid Energy Efficient Reactive (MHEER), HEER with Sink Mobility (HEER-SM) and MHEER with Sink Mobility (MHEER-SM). The multi hop characteristic of the reactive protocols make them scalable. We also exploit node heterogeneity by presenting four routing protocols (i.e., Balanced Energy Efficient Network Integrated Super ix Heterogeneous (BEENISH), Mobile BEENISH (MBEENISH), improved BEENISH (iBEENISH) and improved Mobile BEENISH (iMBEENISH)) to prolong the network lifetime. Since the problems of delay tolerance and mobile sink trajectories need investigation, this dissertation factors in four propositions that explore defined and random mobile sink trajectories. On the other hand, designing an energy efficient routing protocol for UWSNs demands more accuracy and extra computations due to harsh underwater environment. Subject to nodes’ energy consumption minimization, we present Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) and Courier Nodes (CNs) based routing protocol for UWSNs. We validate our propositions for both WSNs and UWSNs via simulations. Results show that the proposed protocols where we incorporated sink mobility perform better than the existing ones in terms of selected performance metrics.