Search

Energy saving in wireless sensor networks is a fundamental issue as most sensor nodes are powered by batteries. The deployment of mobile sinks can alleviate the imbalance of energy consumption among sensor nodes, thereby prolonging the network lifetime. In this paper, we study the energy management problem in sensor networks, using multiple mobile sinks. We first formulate the problem as a novel data collection problem and then propose an efficient algorithm for it. The key challenge in the design of the proposed algorithm is how to balance the workload among mobile sinks and the energy consumption among sensor nodes through the control of the movement of mobile sinks. We finally evaluate the performance of the proposed algorithm through experimental simulation. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithm is very promising, which can improve the energy efficiency and the quality of data transmission in the sensor network significantly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) are designed to collect information across a large number of sensor nodes with limited batteries. Therefore, it is important to minimize energy consumption of each node, so as to extend the lifetime of the network. This paper proposes the use of an intelligent WSN communication architecture based on a multiagent system (MAS), to ensure optimal data collection. MAS refers to a group of agents that interact and cooperate to achieve a specific goal. To ensure this objective, we propose the integration of a migrating agent into each node to process data and enhance cooperation between neighboring nodes, while mobile agents (MAs) can be used to reduce data transfer between the nodes and send them to the base station (Sink). The collaboration of these agents generates a simple message that summarizes important information to be transmitted by an MA. To reduce the size of MAs, nodes in the network sectors are grouped in such way that, for each MA, an optimal itinerary is established, using a minimum amount of energy with efficient data aggregation within a minimum time. Successive simulations in large-scale sensor networks show the good performance of our proposal in terms of energy consumption and packet delivery rate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mobile agent is a kind of program which can transfer via asynchronous mode independently in the sensor network with outstanding prospects in application. However, due to the openness of the sensor network, mobile agents are facing the threat of security, such as being stolen and modified. How to protect sensors from attacks of malicious mobile agents becomes an important issue in the field. Traditional access control strategies such as hybrid encryption mechanism, partial results of the package, and other methods have some defects in the application. We design a multisensor interaction trust model with complete β distribution and introduce incomplete β distribution to optimize the trust model according to the actual situation of detection data loss for mobile agent system in the wireless sensor networks. In addition, the introduction of the malicious behavior feedback mechanism ensures the security of sensors in the mobile agent system. The experimental results show that the reputation model of incomplete β distribution can simulate the actual situation well, resist the attacks of malicious agents, and ensure the security of sensors in the system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, wireless sensor networks have employed the concept of mobile agent to reduce energy consumption and obtain effective data gathering. Typically, in data gathering based on mobile agent, it is an important and essential step to find out the optimal itinerary planning for the mobile agent. However, single-agent itinerary planning suffers from two primary disadvantages: task delay and large size of mobile agent as the scale of the network is expanded. Thus, using multi-agent itinerary planning overcomes the drawbacks of single-agent itinerary planning. Despite the advantages of multi-agent itinerary planning, finding the optimal number of distributed mobile agents, source nodes grouping, and optimal itinerary of each mobile agent for simultaneous data gathering are still regarded as critical issues in wireless sensor network. Therefore, in this article, the existing algorithms that have been identified in the literature to address the above issues are reviewed. The review shows that most of the algorithms used one parameter to find the optimal number of mobile agents in multi-agent itinerary planning without utilizing other parameters. More importantly, the review showed that theses algorithms did not take into account the security of the data gathered by the mobile agent. Accordingly, we indicated the limitations of each proposed algorithm and new directions are provided for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]