Energy Conservation in Progressive Decentralized Single-Hop Wireless Sensor Networks for Pervasive Computing Environment

Abstract

In the pervasive computing environment, energy efficiency is very important in terms of prolonging the lifetime of the communication. As a practical application in pervasive computing environment, wireless sensor networks consist of many sensors and several access points that make them work cooperatively to monitor/measure certain areas. Since the deployment of sensors in unknown sites impedes their recharging, thus exhausting their energy quite quickly, energy conservation becomes a critical issue. Unavoidably, the lavishness of both single- and multihop modes on energy conservation declines the system's life span severely. Therefore, a progressive decentralized single-hop method is conceived. This mechanism works with several phases, in each of which sensors may act in single- or multihop mode. The well-balanced energy consumption rate results in the extension of the system's life span. The method also adapts in general cases and has been proven by mathematical demonstration to totally balance the energy consumption. In addition, the method is very easy to implement. According to the simulation results, it attains most of the original aims of energy conservation.