An energy-efficient sleep scheduling protocol for large-scale cluster-based Mobile Wireless Sensor Networks

Optimizing the use of the limited energy resource in a mobile wireless sensor network (MWSN) is a key challenge for researchers to maintain longer network survival. This paper attempts to provide an energy-efficient data routing solution for large MWSNs. The aim of this work is to propose a cluster-based scheduling protocol for MWSN. The network is firstly divided into an optimal number of clusters according to sensors connectivity. Secondly, a sleep scheduling algorithm is proposed to save the energy consumption by turning off the overlapped nodes in the sensing field. This method is distributed among sensors in each cluster. It is based on the perimeter coverage level of mobile nodes to schedule their activities according to their weights. The weight is used to promote the energy efficiency criterian for all sensors in a cluster. The proposed approach ranges from sensors deployment, their organization to their operational mode. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed cluster-based scheduling algorithm, based on the perimeter coverage of sensors, provides higher energy efficiency and longer lifetime coverage for MWSNs as compared to other protocols.