Mobile Access Coordinated Wireless Sensor Networks—Design and Analysis

Abstract

This paper introduces and analyzes a novel mobile access (MA) coordinated wireless sensor network (MC-WSN) architecture. In conventional sensor networks with mobile access points (SENMA), the MA points traverse the network to collect information directly from individual sensors. While simplifying the routing process, a major limitation with SENMA is that data transmission is limited by the physical speed of the MAs and their trajectory length, resulting in low throughput and large delay. In an effort to resolve this problem, we introduce the MC-WSN architecture, for which a major feature is that: through active network deployment and topology design, the number of hops from any sensor to the MA can be limited to a prespecified number. In this paper, first, we discuss the optimal topology design for MC-WSN such that the average number of hops between the source and its nearest sink is minimized. Second, we calculate the throughput of MC-WSN and illustrate the effect of the number of hops on the throughput. Third, we establish the queuing model for the cluster heads based on the Kleinrock independence assumption and Burke's theorem, and show that the traffic at each cluster head can be modeled as an independent M/M/1 queue. Finally, based on the queue modeling, we provide an in-depth analysis on network stability, delay, and energy efficiency. Our analysis is demonstrated through numerical results. It is shown that under stable system conditions, MC-WSN achieves a much higher throughput and considerably lower delay and energy consumption over SENMA.