A Strategy for Multi-Agent Based Wireless Sensor Network Optimization

The multi-agent approach has been proposed in the literature as a solution for data gathering, and routing in Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs). In these propositions, the knowledge of an agent is generally limited to a single parameter such as the energy of the sensor node and/or to the address of its next hop in a routing protocol proposition. In this paper, we propose a strategy for the agent to make a more appropriate decision to cooperate or not in a data gathering session. This strategy uses, in addition to the energy of the node, several parameters from the local view of the agent as the position of the node within the network, the network density, and the information importance degree. Through successive simulations, this strategy has proved its ability to manage cleverly the power consumption of the sensor nodes and hence to extend the WSN life time.