Purposeful mobility for relaying and surveillance in mobile ad hoc sensor networks

Abstract

Abstract-In this paper, we consider a mobile ad hoc sensor network. The mobility of the sensor nodes is designed with the cost of communication and mobility in mind along with consideration of the possible scanning tasks of the nodes. Our mobility algorithm is developed in the context of a distributed system where, for any single mobile node, only local information about associated energy costs is known. We use a distributed simulated annealing framework to govern the motion of the nodes and prove that, in a limiting sense, a global objective function comprising mobility and communication energy costs will be minimized. This paper concludes with a simulation study focusing on mobile sensors with dual roles of scanning and relaying higher priority tracking traffic from tracking nodes.

Novel Methods for Multi-hop Sensor Positioning on the Surface of a Solar System Body

“…Controlled movement generally consists of mobile devices in the network and moving to specified destinations with defined mobility patterns for specific objectives. The receiver node can adapt its route to achieve more efficient coverage management [16][17][18], energy composition reduction [19,20], transport layer parameters' improvement [21,22], etc. Controlling the device's movements offers new possibilities to improve the data collection efficiency, or optimize the network topology for different type of objectives as the above referenced works show [23].…”

Distributed Mobility Management for Target Tracking in Mobile Sensor Networks

“…In mobile sensor networks, however, these issues are complicated due to the changing topology, typically resulting in a node being disconnected, the network becoming partitioned, or loss of sensing coverage in some regions. In addition, the mechanical energy consumption due to node mobility is generally higher than the energy required for sensing, communication, and computation [20], [24].…”

“…The control mobility is achieved by setting rules based on where the mobile element goes as well as how long it is expected to take. Recently, in [24], Rao and Kesidis have shown that purposeful mobility can be used to achieve energy savings for routing in the sense of an amortized cost measure. It is also shown in [19] that mobility is helpful for maintaining sensing coverage for both static and mobile targets, particularly when the number of nodes is not sufficient for covering the complete area.…”

“…Note that, for wireless sensor networks with scarce energy resources, it is not always favorable for nodes to move during field operation because the energy required for locomotion energy is often much higher than that for sensing and communication [20], [24]. However, as shown in [19], [26], when nodes can afford the energy cost associated with mobility, it is important to have a network management scheme that can make effective use of mobility to facilitate application objectives.…”

Current Trends in Wireless Sensor Network Design

“…In a real time setting mobility can be used to facilitate network connectivity and saving communication energy spent between sensor nodes and data repository. Rao et al [25] propose a communal-mission-oriented mobility to decide where to move a node so that it can perform either of the two tasks, that is, local scans (checking for uncovered regions) or data forwarding better. They have developed distributed mobility algorithms to support high priority tracking traffic (detailed information on tracked targets) by moving scanning nodes to route latency critical tracking traffic.…”