Energy Optimization based on the Redundancy in WSNs

International audienceAlmost all WSNs (Wireless Sensor Networks) are deployed with some redundancy degree and redundancy is used only for robustness objectives. If not handled in an intelligent way, redundancy results in energy wasting because of (often unnecessary) redundant transmission and reception operations. We propose to take benefit from measurement redundancy to optimize the energy consumption and improve the end-to-end delay. We propose MR-LEACH (Measurement Redundancy aware LEACH) protocol, which is an extension to the well-known LEACH protocol to improve energy consumption in cluster-based WSNs. In addition to cluster formation according to LEACH protocol redundant nodes are grouped taking into account their redundancy and only a single node transmits data in each redundant group. This technique significantly improves the energy consumption and ensures a better end-to-end delay. Through intensive simulations, we discuss the performance of our approach and show how it outperforms the original LEACH protocol in terms of network lifetime and end-to-end delay

An innovative approach of blending security features in energy-efficient routing for a crowded network of wireless sensors

Wireless sensor networks (WSN) are emerging as both an important new tier in the IT (information technology) ecosystem and a rich domain of active research involving hardware and system design, networking, distributed algorithms, programming models, data management, security, and social factors [1,2]. The basic idea of a sensor network is to disperse tiny sensing devices over a specific target area. These devices are capable of sensing certain changes of incidents or parameters and of communicating with other devices. WSNs could be very useful for providing support for some specific purposes, such as target tracking, surveillance, environmental monitoring, etc. Today’s sensors can monitor temperature, pressure, humidity, soil makeup, vehicular movement, noise levels, lighting conditions, the presence or absence of certain kinds of objects or substances, mechanical stress levels on attached objects, and other properties. As such types of networks are composed of resource-constrained tiny sensor nodes, many research works have tried to focus on efficient use of the available resources of the sensors. Energy is, in fact, one of the most critical factors that play a great role to define the duration of an active and operable network. Energy efficiency is often very crucial in these sorts of networks as the power sources of the inexpensive sensors are (in most of the cases) not replaceable after deployment. If any intermediate node between any two communicating nodes runs out of battery power, the link between the end nodes is eventually broken. So any protocol should ensure a competent way of utilizing the energies of the sensors so that a fair connectivity of the network could be ensured throughout its operation time. Energy efficiency is also very necessary to maximize the lifetime of the network