Mitigating Hotspot Issue in WSN Using Sensor Nodes with Varying Initial Energy Levels and Quantification Algorithm

Abstract

A typical Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) uses multihop communication rather than direct transmission. In a multi-hop communication, the sensor node communicates the sensed data to its neighbor node, which is comparatively closer to the sink and the receiving node will forward the data to its neighbor node. This process continues until the data reaches the sink. Due to the multihop communication, the nodes closer to the sink have to transmit and receive more data and control packets compared to other nodes. Hence, the nodes closer to sink may deplete their energy at a faster rate and may die soon. This may create network isolation. This issue is called as the Hotspot problem. In this paper, we are proposing a Quantification algorithm for Sensor Nodes with varying Initial Energy Level to mitigate the Hotspot effect.