A sink moving scheme based on local residual energy of nodes in wireless sensor networks

In the application of periodic data-gathering in sensor networks, sensor nodes located near the sink have to forward the data received from all other nodes to the sink, which depletes their energy very quickly. A moving scheme for the sink based on local residual energy was proposed. In the scheme, the sink periodically moves to a new location with the highest stay-value defined by the average residual energy and the number of neighbors. The scheme can balance energy consumption and prevent nodes around sink from draining their energy very quickly in the networks. The simulation results show that the scheme can prolong the network lifetime by 26%–65% compared with the earlier schemes where the sink is static or moves randomly. Foundation item: Project(60673164) supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China; Project(20060533057) supported by the Specialized Research Foundation for the Doctoral Program of Higher Education of China