Analysis of Energy Usage in Adaptive Sensor Networks

Currently, a rapidly increasing numbers of sensors are being used on vehicles and in surface transportation and this trend is expected to continue. In support of these sensor networks several energy management schemes, including hierarchical clustering methods, have been proposed in the literature to reduce energy usage. However, the operating conditions for wireless sensors in vehicular environments change continuously. Sensor networks must thus be able to adapt to the environment to maximize performance and reliability. In this paper, we discuss the necessity for splitting a cluster. In particular, we explore the changes in the energy usage profile when a cluster is split. Even though our algorithm is designed for specific applications relevant to automation and control of railroad operations we believe that our discussions on energy consumption is a universal issue relevant to any form of clustered networks in vehicular environments.