A durable sensor enabled lifeline support for firefighters

Traditionally, firefighters used to use lifelines (example, ropes) when moving through places on fire under impaired visibility. However, these lifelines have their inherent drawbacks like they sometimes get stuck and limit the operational range. A recent research proposed that firefighters automatically deploy sensor nodes along their paths to establish an ad hoc network that promotes the required level of navigation and communication between firefighters who interact to the system using wearable computing devices. An alternative way to implement such system, is to deploy sensors during building construction or later to build a mission critical network that can be used for emergency purposes. Durability with respect to energy available is one of the primary challenges to the success of such networks. Workforce selection strategies which unevenly consume sensor energy can reduce the lifetime of the network significantly. This work proposes and evaluates a new class of strategies that provides an energy efficient workforce management for mission-critical WSNs (e.g. on-site indoor-navigation support system for slow moving firefighters under impaired visibility). Analytical and simulation results demonstrate that the proposed approach significantly increases network lifetime by evenly consuming sensors energy.