A Routing Protocol for Multisink Wireless Sensor Networks in Underground Coalmine Tunnels

Area of Science:

• Engineering
• Computer Science
• Mining Engineering

Background:

• Traditional wired systems fail during accidents, hindering data acquisition in underground coal mines.
• Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) offer a solution but face deployment challenges in long, narrow tunnels, leading to high energy use, poor connectivity, and delays.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a novel routing protocol for multisink WSNs tailored for underground coal mine environments.
• To address limitations of WSNs in mines, including energy consumption, connectivity, delay, and network lifetime.

Main Methods:

• Proposed a new routing protocol algorithm for multisink WSNs incorporating transmission power control.
• Implemented an algorithm to determine optimal communication radius and transmission power for each sink.
• Utilized non-uniform clustering for optimized cluster head selection.

Main Results:

• The new algorithm significantly enhances power efficiency by approximately 70%.
• Achieved a 15% increase in network connectivity and reduced cluster interference by 50%.
• Extended network lifetime by approximately 6% and reduced data transmission delays.

Conclusions:

• The proposed routing protocol effectively overcomes WSN deployment challenges in underground coal mines.
• Demonstrated superior performance compared to the Centroid of the Nodes in a Partition (CNP) strategy in key network metrics.
• Offers a viable solution for reliable and efficient environmental monitoring in hazardous mining conditions.