Towards an optimal energy consumption for unattended mobile sensor networks through autonomous sensor redeployment

Energy hole is an inherent problem caused by heavier traffic loads of sensor nodes nearer the sink because of more frequent data transmission, which is strongly dependent on the topology induced by the sensor deployment. In this paper, we propose an autonomous sensor redeployment algorithm to balance energy consumption and mitigate energy hole for unattended mobile sensor networks. First, with the target area divided into several equal width coronas, we present a mathematical problem modeling sensor node layout as well as transmission pattern to maximize network coverage and reduce communication cost. And then, by calculating the optimal node density for each corona to avoid energy hole, a fully distributed movement algorithm is proposed, which can achieve an optimal distribution quickly only by pushing or pulling its one-hop neighbors. The simulation results demonstrate that our algorithm achieves a much smaller average moving distance and a much longer network lifetime than existing algorithms and can eliminate the energy hole problem effectively.