OTC: An Optimized Topology Control Algorithm for Wireless Sensor Networks

A critical issue in wireless sensor networks is represented by the limited availability of energy within sensor nodes. An effective approach for energy conservation is scheduling sleep intervals for extraneous nodes, while the remaining nodes stay active to provide continuous service. In this paper, we present a topology control algorithm, termed OTC, for sensor networks. It uses two-hops neighborhood information to select a subset of nodes to be active among all nodes in the neighborhood. Each node in the network selects its own set of active neighbors from among its one-hop neighbors. This set is determined such that it covers all two-hops neighbors. OTC is evaluated against two well-known algorithms from the literature, namely Span and GAF through realistic simulations using TOSSIM. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm achieves significant energy savings against others while ensuring a load-balanced network.