Improving network lifetime with mobile wireless sensor networks

Sensors are used to monitor and control the physical environment. In mobile sensor networks, nodes can self-propel via springs, wheels, or they can be attached to transporters, such as vehicles. Sensors have limited energy supply and the sensor network is expected to be functional for a long time, so optimizing the energy consumption to prolong the network lifetime becomes an important issue. In static sensor networks, if sensors are uniformly deployed, sensors near the sinks die first. This is because besides sending their own sensed data, they also participate in forwarding data on behalf of other sensors located farther away from the sink. This uneven energy consumption results in network partitioning and limitation of the network lifetime. In this paper, we survey mechanisms that utilize nodes’ mobility to extend the