Minimizing the Energy Hole Problem in Wireless Sensor Networks: A Wedge Merging Approach.

Area of Science:

• Computer Science
• Electrical Engineering
• Network Engineering

Background:

• Energy holes are a critical issue in wireless sensor networks (WSNs), limiting network operational lifespan.
• Existing solutions like mobile sinks or redundant nodes often fail to prevent energy hole formation.
• The static nature of sensor node deployment contributes to the persistence of energy holes.

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose a novel dynamic network partitioning and merging strategy to mitigate energy holes in WSNs.
• To introduce an efficient Head Node (HN) selection mechanism for reduced data transmission energy.
• To enhance the overall lifetime and energy efficiency of WSNs.

Main Methods:

• The WEMER scheme divides the network into equiangular wedges.
• Wedges dynamically merge when their member nodes' residual energy falls below a threshold.
• An efficient Head Node (HN) selection scheme is proposed for inter-Head Node data forwarding.

Main Results:

• The WEMER scheme demonstrates significantly higher network lifetime compared to PEGASIS, CCS, and MCDA.
• WEMER achieves better overall energy efficiency in wireless sensor networks.
• Simulation results validate the effectiveness of the proposed wedge merging and HN selection strategies.

Conclusions:

• The proposed WEdge MERging (WEMER) scheme effectively addresses the energy hole problem in WSNs.
• WEMER offers a superior solution for extending WSN lifetime and improving energy efficiency.
• The dynamic wedge merging and HN selection contribute to robust and efficient WSN operation.