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Optimizing data collection path in sensor networks with mobile elements

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Abstract

Exploiting mobile elements (MEs) to accomplish data collection in wireless sensor networks (WSNs) can improve the energy efficiency of sensor nodes, and prolong network lifetime. However, it will lead to large data collection latency for the network, which is unacceptable for data-critical applications. In this paper, we address this problem by minimizing the traveling length of MEs. Our methods mainly consist of two steps: we first construct a virtual grid network and select the minimal stop point set (SPS) from it; then, we make optimal scheduling for the MEs based on the SPS in order to minimize their traveling length. Different implementations of genetic algorithm (GA) are used to solve the problem. Our methods are evaluated by extensive simulations. The results show that these methods can greatly reduce the traveling length of MEs, and decrease the data collection latency.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computer Science, Nankai University, Tianjin, 300071, PRC

    Liang He & Jing-Dong Xu

  2. School of Computer Science and Software, Tianjin Polytechnic University, Tianjin, 300160, PRC

    Zhi Chen

Authors
  1. Liang He
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  2. Zhi Chen
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  3. Jing-Dong Xu
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Liang He.

Additional information

This work was supported by Tianjin Municipal Information Industry Office (No. 082044012)

Liang He received the B. Sc. degree in the Department of Computer Science from Tianjin University, Tianjin, PRC in 2006. Since September 2006, he has been working toward the Ph.D. degree at the Department of Computer Science, Nankai University, Tianjin, PRC. He is now working at the Department of Computer Science, University of Victoria, Canada as a visiting Ph.D. candidate.

His research interests include wireless sensor network, especially exploring controlled mobility to accomplish data collection in sensor networks.

Zhi Chen received the B. Sc., M. Sc., and Ph.D. degrees in the Department of Computer Science from Nankai University, Tianjin, PRC in 2003, 2006, and 2009, respectively. Since September 2009, he has been working as a lecturer in School of Computer Science and Software, Tianjin Polytechnic University, PRC.

His research interests include mobile computing and distributed computing, especially wireless sensor network and peer-to-peer network.

Jing-Dong Xu received the B. Sc., M. Sc., and Ph. D. degrees in computer science from Nankai University, Tianjin, PRC in 1988, 1991, and 2002, respectively. She is now a professor and the chair of the Department of Computer Science, Nankai University.

Her research interests include wireless ad-hoc network and wireless sensor network.

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He, L., Chen, Z. & Xu, JD. Optimizing data collection path in sensor networks with mobile elements. Int. J. Autom. Comput. 8, 69–77 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11633-010-0556-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11633-010-0556-y

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