Sensor Node Control Considering Energy-Efficiency in Wireless Sensor Networks

Abstract The life-time and performance of a wireless sensor network is closely related to energy-efficiency of sensor nodes. In this paper, to increase energy-efficiency, each sensor node operates in one of three operational modes which are normal, power-saving, and inactive. In normal mode sensor nodes sense and transmit data with normal period, whereas sensor nodes in power-saving mode have three-times longer period. In inactive mode, sensor nodes do not sense and transmit any data, which makes the energy consumption to be minimized. Plus, the proposed algorithm can avoid unnecessary energy consumption by preventing transmitting duplicate sensed data. We implemented and simulated the proposed algorithm using Tiny OS based ZigbeX platfom and NS-2, respectively. Performance evaluation results show that the proposed algorithm can prolong sensor networks' lifespan by efficiently reducing energy consumption and its standard deviation of all sensor nodes. Key Words : Wireless sensor network, Energy-efficiency, Normal mode, Power-saving mode, Inactive mode