Maximizing Network Lifetime of Wireless Sensor Networks: An Energy Harvesting Approach

Abstract

Energy preservation is very crucial in wireless sensor networks as they are operated in hostile and non-accessible areas. The use of renewable energy sources is an alternative technique for extending lifetime of a sensor network where the battery-driven sensor nodes run out of battery power faster. In this paper, we study and solve the problem of extending network lifetime by introduce energy-harvesting (EH) sensor nodes and propose a clustering algorithm to extend the network lifetime. In the proposed algorithm, we present an efficient scheme for cluster head selection by considering the locations of EH sensor nodes and all of these EH sensor nodes serve as relay nodes to the cluster heads. Simulation results and their theoretical analysis show that the proposed algorithm outperforms the existing algorithm.