An Optimize-Aware Target Tracking Method Combining MAC Layer and Active Nodes in Wireless Sensor Networks

Abstract

Wireless Sensor Network WSN is consisted of nodes with different sizes and a specific goal. Tracking applications are very important in WSNs. This study proposes a method for reducing energy consumption in WSNs, considering target tracking. A prediction method is also presented with the help of MAC Medium Access Control layer in which a few number of nodes are in active mode to track the target while the rest of the nodes are switched into sleeping mode. Energy consumption was reduced by decreasing the number of nodes involved in target tracking and activating merely a limited number of necessary nodes. The conducted experiments suggest that the proposed algorithm has a much better performance compared to similar algorithms in different conditions, including energy consumption in different communication ranges, effect of the number of nodes on energy consumption, the number of nodes involved in tracking in terms of communication range, and losing the target. This means the proposed method is superior and more efficient. When the target enters the simulation area, nodes of the network identify the target node through the proposed method (which is the optimum method) and track it as long as it is inside the simulation area. Performance criteria, including energy, other nodes, and throughput were used in simulation. The results showed that the proposed method has the optimum performance and reduces energy consumption of the network during tracking. The results of the simulation showed that the proposed method reduces energy consumption to an acceptable extent, compared to previous methods, in addition to increasing the accuracy of target tracking. Keywords: Active nodes, MAC layer, Energy efficiency, Target tracking, Wireless sensor networks, Target tracking.