A Theoretic Approach for Prolonging Lifetime of Wireless Sensor Networks Based on the Coalition Game Model

Energy consumption is one of the most important performance measures in wireless sensor networks (WSNs). In order to reduce energy consumption, some nodes in the network will work together as a coalition but will not work independently. In this paper, towards forming coalitions, an energy-efficient coalition game model is proposed based on the Markov process and from the theoretic point of view. First, we propose the performance measure of the Markov process states based on the concept of absorbing coefficient and bargaining set. Consequently, we give a simulation algorithm to calculate the absorbing coefficient and simulate the forming process of the coalitions. Moreover, to determine the strategies of coalitions to ensure the WSNs’ reachability, we give the genetic-algorithm based method for calculating the approximate Nash equilibrium. Experimental results show that our model can guarantee longer lifetime and effective reachability for WSNs.