Load balancing techniques for lifetime maximizing in wireless sensor networks

Energy consumption has been the focus of many studies on Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN). It is well recognized that energy is a strictly limited resource in WSNs. This limitation constrains the operation of the sensor nodes and somehow compromises the long term network performance as well as network activities. Indeed, the purpose of all application scenarios is to have sensor nodes deployed, unattended, for several months or years. This paper presents the lifetime maximization problem in many-to-one and mostly-off wireless sensor networks. In such network pattern, all sensor nodes generate and send packets to a single sink via multi-hop transmissions. We noticed, in our previous experimental studies, that since the entire sensor data has to be forwarded to a base station via multi-hop routing, the traffic pattern is highly non-uniform, putting a high burden on the sensor nodes close to the base station. In this paper, we propose some strategies that balance the energy consumption of these nodes and ensure maximum network lifetime by balancing the traffic load as equally as possible. First, we formalize the network lifetime maximization problem then we derive an optimal load balancing solution. Subsequently, we propose a heuristic to approximate the optimal solution and we compare both optimal and heuristic solutions with most common strategies such as shortest-path and equiproportional routing. We conclude that through the results of this work, combining load balancing with transmission power control outperforms the traditional routing schemes in terms of network lifetime maximization. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.