A Rendezvous Node Selection Algorithm for Mobile Sink Path Planning in Wireless Sensor Networks

Abstract

Recent research shows that significant energy hole problem can be solved in wireless sensor network (WSN) by using mobile sink capable of carrying data. In order to plan an optimal moving tour for mobile sink without long distance travel, we develop the rendezvous node selection algorithm (RNSA) to find rendezvous nodes (RN) for the sink to visit. The RNSA can select the set of RNs to act as store points for the mobile sink, and several factors would be considered to find suitable RNs from sensor nodes, the other sensor nodes would forward data via multi hopping to the nearest RN, such that the energy consumption of sensor nodes is minimized and uniform to avoid the problem of energy holes while ensuring sensed data are collected on time. Our scheme is then validated through extensive simulations.