WRSNs: Toward an Efficient Scheduling for Mobile Chargers

Abstract

Wireless Rechargeable Sensor Networks (WRSNs) are emerging systems to build data acquisition systems to monitor critical areas. It has better features than Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) since in WRSNs, sensors are rechargeable. Wireless Rechargeable Sensor Networks allow sensors with sensing ability to collect and supply data to the operation center (sink). The Wireless Rechargeable Sensor Network appears as a more advanced solution because it can overcome the challenges and disadvantages such as battery limitation. In practical Wireless Rechargeable Sensor Networks, there is a budgetary constraint for the different expenditure categories, and therefore the number of used mobile chargers needs to be minimized. We investigate the problem of scheduling the minimum number of mobile chargers to replenish energy all sensors in a WRSN such that the network can be operated without limitations, and the total number of used chargers is minimized, referred to as the Periodic Energy Replenishment with Minimum Mobile Charger (PERMMC) problem. We design a new algorithm, namely the Mobile Charger Scheduling Algorithm (MCSA) to address the PERMMC problem. Finally, we conduct extensive simulations and provide analyses to demonstrate the performance of MCSA.