Abstract
In solar-powered wireless sensor networks (SP-WSNs), sensor nodes can continuously harvest energy to relieve the energy constraint problem in battery-powered WSNs. With the advent of wireless power transmission (WPT) technology, the nodes can be charged remotely if the energy harvested is insufficient. However, even in SP-WSNs with WPT, an energy imbalance problem is observed, in which the energy consumption of the nodes around a sink node increases abnormally if the sink node is stationary. To solve this problem, recent studies have been conducted using a mobile sink node instead of a stationary one. Generally, a clustering scheme is used for the efficient utilization of a mobile sink. However, even in the case of mobile sinks, it is still necessary to minimize the energy burden of the cluster heads and their surrounding nodes. In this study, we propose a scheme that mitigates the energy imbalance problem of SP-WSNs by using a WPT-capable mobile sink and an efficient clustering scheme. In the proposed scheme, the energy imbalance is minimized by electing the cluster heads effectively after considering the energy state of the nodes, and by enabling the sink node to charge the energy of the cluster heads while collecting data from them. Consequently, this scheme allows the sink node to collect more data with fewer blackouts of the sensor nodes.
Highlights
Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) deploy numerous low-power and low-cost sensor nodes to monitor the environment in difficult-to-access or vast areas
In this study, based on the studies described above, we proposed an efficient cluster management scheme designed for solar-powered wireless sensor networks (SP-WSNs) operating with a wireless power transmission (WPT)-capable mobile sink
Energy hotspots in the nodes close to the cluster heads were reduced by using an effective head selection algorithm, which led to a decrease in the blackout times of the sensor nodes and an increase in the amount of data collected at the mobile sink
Summary
Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) deploy numerous low-power and low-cost sensor nodes to monitor the environment in difficult-to-access or vast areas. In this study, based on the studies described above, we proposed an efficient cluster management scheme designed for solar-powered wireless sensor networks (SP-WSNs) operating with a WPT-capable mobile sink. Energy hotspots in the nodes close to the cluster heads were reduced by using an effective head selection algorithm, which led to a decrease in the blackout times of the sensor nodes and an increase in the amount of data collected at the mobile sink. Our scheme aimed to reduce the number of blackout nodes and to maximize the amount of data collected in the sink by minimizing the energy imbalance in the SP-WSN operating with a mobile charger.
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