Rescuing moribund NVM-based sensor nodes by an energy-efficient WCV routing algorithm

Abstract

Sensor devices have been widely applied to variety applications, including internet of things (IoT), cyber physical systems (CPS) and environmental monitoring systems. Because all sensing data in such applications are very important for data analysis and mining in a host machine, sensor devices are equipped with non-volatile memory (NVM) [1] and nonvolatile processor [2], [3] to prevent sensing data in sensor nodes from data loss. As a result, sensing data can be permanently stored in a sensor device without the risk of data loss even if the battery of the sensor device is run out. Based on such observations, the lifetime of a sensor network should be redefined due to non-volatile technologies, such as NVM and NV processor. Conventionally, the lifetime of a sensor network is the time at which the first sensor node uses up its battery due to the consideration of sensor network QoS [4], [5]. However, since sensing data can be permanently stored in a local drive, the lifetime of a sensor network should be redefined as the time at which the first out-of-date data is produced in a sensor node. If the battery of a sensor node is run out but the sensor node does not contain any out-of-date data, the sensor node will be regarded as a moribund node. If all moribund nodes can be rescued by a rechargeable technology, the sensor network will be immortal. Such observations motivate us to design an energy-efficient solution to achieve the goal of immortal sensor network by exploiting the benefits of wireless charging vehicle.