On Selection of Energy-Efficient Data Aggregation Node in Wireless Sensor Networks

In-network data aggregation is one of the most important issues for achieving energy-efficiency in wireless sensor networks since sensor nodes in the surrounding region of an event may generate redundant sensed data. The redundant sensed data should be aggregated before being delivered to the sink to reduce energy consumption. Which node should be selected as a Data Aggregation Node (DAN) for achieving the best energy efficiency is a difficult issue. To address this issue, this letter proposes a scheme to select a DAN for achieving energy-efficiency in an event region. The proposed scheme uses an analytical model to select the sensor node that has the lowest total energy consumption for gathering data from sensor nodes and for forwarding aggregated data to a sink, as a DAN. Analysis and simulation results show that the proposed scheme is superior to other schemes. key words: aggregation, data aggregation node, energy consumption, redundant sensed data, wireless sensor networks