Title: Relay node placement with energy and buffer constraints in wireless sensor networks using mobile data collector

Authors: Ataul Bari, Da Teng, Rashid Ahmed, Arunita Jaekel

Addresses: School of Computer Science, University of Windsor, 401 Sunset Ave., Windsor, ON N9B 3P4, Canada. ' School of Computer Science, University of Windsor, 401 Sunset Ave., Windsor, ON N9B 3P4, Canada. ' School of Computer Science, University of Windsor, 401 Sunset Ave., Windsor, ON N9B 3P4, Canada. ' School of Computer Science, University of Windsor, 401 Sunset Ave., Windsor, ON N9B 3P4, Canada

Abstract: Higher-powered relay nodes, used as cluster heads in hierarchical sensor networks, can improve network performances. Most existing relay node placement strategies consider only stationary nodes, where data are routed to the base station(s), possibly using multiple hops. We consider a relay node based network, where a Mobile Data Collector (MDC) collects data from each relay node and delivers the collected data to the base station. This reduces the energy dissipation of the relay nodes by relieving them of the burden of transmitting data over longer distances. The issue is to find the minimum number of relay nodes, along with their locations, such that network coverage and lifetime requirements are satisfied. We present an integrated Integer Linear Program (ILP) formulation that determines an optimal relay node placement scheme, which ensures that there is no data loss due to buffer overflow and the energy dissipation does not exceed a specified level.

Keywords: wireless sensor networks; relay nodes; node placement; mobility; WSNs; MDC; mobile data collector; wireless networks; buffer overflow; energy dissipation.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSNET.2010.036190

International Journal of Sensor Networks, 2010 Vol.8 No.3/4, pp.147 - 159

Published online: 27 Oct 2010 *

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