Energy efficient data aggregation using multiple mobile agents in wireless sensor network

Abstract

Gathering data effectively has always been of primary importance in wireless sensor network. Mobile agent paradigm has made it possible to collect and aggregate data in a manner which is appropriate for real-time applications. In static wireless sensor network, the sensor nodes forward the data to the sink node through intermediate sensor nodes while mobile agents have an advantage as they reduce the passing of results between the intermediate nodes so consumption of network bandwidth also reduces. But mobile agent paradigm brings along its own challenges, and one of the major issues is to achieve energy efficiency. This paper proposes a data aggregation approach using multiple mobile agents which takes into account aggregation ratio, network lifespan, and energy efficiency. The network is divided into four quadrants, and a mobile agent is dispatched for each quadrant to collect data from the quadrant assigned to it. Simulation results show that the proposed approach consumes optimal amount of energy; hence, the network lifespan is elongated.