Wireless Mobile Sensor Networks: Protocols and Mobility Strategies

In the last few years, tremendous efforts have been made to enhance the performance of stationary wireless sensor networks (WSNs). However, such improvements are constrained by the limitations of being a stationary network. Recent advances in robotic and the potential usage of naturally moving objects such as vehicle, animal, and even human, enable some of the sensors in the network to be mobile, and such a network is so called a Mobile WSN (MWSN). In this chapter, we study how mobility can improve the network performance such as the network lifetime, coverage, and connectivity. For example, the lifetime of a WSN can be improved by additionally deploying some mobile sensors in the hot spot around the Base Stations (BSs). The coverage is further enhanced by allowing some or all sensors to reposition themselves or move continuously. Furthermore, high connectivity along with coverage is maintained by replacing the broken links or adding extra sensors to reconnect the partitioned networks through the use of mobile relay units. To provide a complete understanding of these aspects, we perform a comprehensive examination of existing approaches in designing a MWSN.

[1]  Deborah Estrin,et al.  An energy-efficient MAC protocol for wireless sensor networks , 2002, Proceedings.Twenty-First Annual Joint Conference of the IEEE Computer and Communications Societies.

[2]  Robert Tappan Morris,et al.  Span: An Energy-Efficient Coordination Algorithm for Topology Maintenance in Ad Hoc Wireless Networks , 2002, Wirel. Networks.

[3]  Wei Wang,et al.  Using mobile relays to prolong the lifetime of wireless sensor networks , 2005, MobiCom '05.

[4]  Yang Zhang,et al.  Data management in the CarTel mobile sensor computing system , 2006, SIGMOD Conference.

[5]  Dharma P. Agrawal,et al.  LIMOC: Enhancing the Lifetime of a Sensor Network with Mobile Clusterheads , 2007, 2007 IEEE 66th Vehicular Technology Conference.

[6]  Ivan Stojmenovic,et al.  Handbook of Sensor Networks: Algorithms and Architectures , 2005, Handbook of Sensor Networks.

[7]  Emanuel Melachrinoudis,et al.  Exploiting Sink Mobility for Maximizing Sensor Networks Lifetime , 2005, Proceedings of the 38th Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences.

[8]  Gaurav S. Sukhatme,et al.  Robomote: a tiny mobile robot platform for large-scale ad-hoc sensor networks , 2002, Proceedings 2002 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (Cat. No.02CH37292).

[9]  Christian Bettstetter,et al.  On the minimum node degree and connectivity of a wireless multihop network , 2002, MobiHoc '02.

[10]  Béla Bollobás,et al.  Modern Graph Theory , 2002, Graduate Texts in Mathematics.

[11]  Krishnendu Chakrabarty,et al.  Sensor placement for effective coverage and surveillance in distributed sensor networks , 2003, 2003 IEEE Wireless Communications and Networking, 2003. WCNC 2003..

[12]  Gaurav S. Sukhatme,et al.  Mobile Sensor Network Deployment using Potential Fields : A Distributed , Scalable Solution to the Area Coverage Problem , 2002 .

[13]  Waylon Brunette,et al.  Data MULEs: modeling a three-tier architecture for sparse sensor networks , 2003, Proceedings of the First IEEE International Workshop on Sensor Network Protocols and Applications, 2003..

[14]  Paolo Santi,et al.  Investigating upper bounds on network lifetime extension for cell-based energy conservation techniques in stationary ad hoc networks , 2002, MobiCom '02.

[15]  S. Zhou,et al.  Finding optimal placements for mobile sensors: wireless sensor network topology adjustment , 2004, Proceedings of the IEEE 6th Circuits and Systems Symposium on Emerging Technologies: Frontiers of Mobile and Wireless Communication (IEEE Cat. No.04EX710).

[16]  Christopher Taylor,et al.  Localization in Sensor Networks , 2005, Handbook of Sensor Networks.

[17]  Donald F. Towsley,et al.  Mobility improves coverage of sensor networks , 2005, MobiHoc '05.

[18]  Waylon Brunette,et al.  Data MULEs: modeling and analysis of a three-tier architecture for sparse sensor networks , 2003, Ad Hoc Networks.

[19]  Milind Dawande,et al.  Energy efficient schemes for wireless sensor networks with multiple mobile base stations , 2003, GLOBECOM '03. IEEE Global Telecommunications Conference (IEEE Cat. No.03CH37489).

[20]  Guoliang Xing,et al.  Integrated coverage and connectivity configuration in wireless sensor networks , 2003, SenSys '03.

[21]  Kay Römer,et al.  Time Synchronization and Calibration in Wireless Sensor Networks , 2005, Handbook of Sensor Networks.

[22]  Matthew Lease,et al.  Making Sensor Networks Practical with Robots , 2002, Pervasive.

[23]  Bhaskar Krishnamachari,et al.  An adaptive energy-efficient and low-latency MAC for data gathering in wireless sensor networks , 2004, 18th International Parallel and Distributed Processing Symposium, 2004. Proceedings..

[24]  Thomas F. La Porta,et al.  Movement-Assisted Sensor Deployment , 2006, IEEE Trans. Mob. Comput..

[25]  Anantha Chandrakasan,et al.  Upper bounds on the lifetime of sensor networks , 2001, ICC 2001. IEEE International Conference on Communications. Conference Record (Cat. No.01CH37240).

[26]  Deborah Estrin,et al.  ASCENT : Adaptive Self-Configuring sEnsor Networks Topologies . , 2002 .

[27]  Ashutosh Sabharwal,et al.  Using Predictable Observer Mobility for Power Efficient Design of Sensor Networks , 2003, IPSN.

[28]  Jun Luo,et al.  Joint mobility and routing for lifetime elongation in wireless sensor networks , 2005, Proceedings IEEE 24th Annual Joint Conference of the IEEE Computer and Communications Societies..