A Distributed Algorithm for Joint Sensing and Routing in Wireless Networks with Non-Steerable Directional Antennas

Abstract— In many energy-rechargeable wireless sensor networks, sensor nodes must both sense data from the environment, and cooperatively forward sensed data to data sinks. Both data sensing and data forwarding (including data transmission and reception) consume energy at sensor nodes. We present a distributed algorithm for optimal joint allocation of energy between sensing and communication at each node to maximize overall system utility (i.e., the aggregate amount of information received at the data sinks). We consider this problem in the context of wireless sensor networks with directional, non-steerable antennas. We first formulate a joint data-sensing and data-routing optimization problem with both per-node energy-expenditure constraints, and traditional flow routing/conservation constraints. We then simplify this problem by converting it to an equivalent routing problem, and present a distributed gradient-based algorithm that iteratively adjusts the per-node amount of energy ...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2006
• Where: ICNP
• Authors: Chun Zhang, Jim Kurose, Yong Liu, Donald F. Towsley, Michael Zink
• Keywords: Data Sinks, ICNP 2006, Network Protocols, Sensor Nodes, Wireless Sensor Networks