A Joint Design Approach for Communication Schedule and Layout of Wireless Sensor Networks

This paper considers the problem of designing the layout geometry of a wireless sensor network to extend network lifetime. The communication pattern between sensor nodes and their associated base station is exploited in building an efficient network structure prior to network deployment. Such an approach is feasible for sensor networks whose installation and layout can be planned ahead of time, as is possible in many sensor network applications including intrusion detection, powerline monitoring and indoor monitoring. Since sensor nodes expand energy for relaying packets, we consider the question of placement of nodes in the typical line network topology to reduce the packet forwarding load on sensor nodes closer to the base station. Similar to scheduling problems in other domains, we also exploit the problem structure to find the periods for each sensor node to keep its radio active. The novelty of our problem formulation is that it jointly determines geometric layout and idlelistening times for line topologies. We also explain how the line solution can be used as a primitive in design of networks for the coverage of two dimensional regions. Simulation results show that such a joint design approach yields significant improvements in network lifetime as compared to the conventional network design method using uniform node distribution.