An energy efficient new protocol for wireless sensor networks with multiple mobile sinks

Abstract

Energy hole is regarded as one of the challenging issues in wireless sensor networks (WSNs). According to this problem, nodes that are closer to the sink lose their energy earlier than other nodes. Consequently, it leads to the early breakdown of the network. One approach for preventing this problem is to use mobile sink rather than one or more sinks with fixed positions. Also, using fuzzy logic and unequal clustering, some other studies have somehow managed to handle this problem. In this paper, we used an unequal network clustering via fuzzy logic using three parameters: distance from the closest RN, sensors' density, remaining energy and also mobile sink, we developed and proposed a method for the smart selection of mobile sink route. In this way, we tried to sort out energy hole problem. Results of simulating the proposed method indicated that it could significantly enhance sensors' lifetime and solve the energy hole problem.