Nature-inspired moving sink energy efficient data gathering protocol for wireless sensor network

Abstract

Resource constrained low-cost sensor nodes deployed in large scale are the potential source of information in wireless sensor networks (WSN). Usually, sensor nodes are equipped with a non-rechargeable battery, which is having limited power and therefore its judicious use is essential for longer network life. Data gathering protocols proposed in the research literature are elegant in terms of consumption of battery power, but suffer from basic limitations. During the initial rounds of communication, all the nodes participate in data gathering process and information is received from the entire network field. However, as the time progresses, nodes start dying due to run out of battery power and the coverage-hole area increases. This paper put forwards a moving sink-based protocol for WSNs. Our extensive simulation study showed that, our protocol not only enhanced the network life time in terms of number of rounds of communications, but also addressed the coverage-hole issue.