Energy-efficient sensor node control based on sensed data and energy monitoring

Abstract

This paper proposes an energy-efficient sensor node control mechanism to prolong sensor networks' lifespan by minimizing and equalizing energy consumption of sensor nodes. The proposed scheme newly defines three operational modes of a sensor node, which are normal, power-saving, and inactive. When the remaining energy of a sensor node is lower than the average remaining energy of all sensor nodes in the same network or cluster, it operates in the power-saving or inactive mode. This makes it possible to minimize and equalize energy consumption of each sensor node. The proposed mechanism additionally includes another scheme to prevent a sensor node transmitting duplicate sensed data. When a sensor node takes sensed data, it compares them with pre-sensed data to decide their duplicity. This makes it possible to avoid unnecessary energy consumption caused by transmitting duplicate sensed data. We implemented and simulated the proposed schemes with TinyOS and NS-2, respectively. The simulation results show that the proposed mechanism can efficiently reduce and equalize energy consumption, and therefore prolong sensor networks' lifespan. © 2011 Springer-Verlag.