On the use of multi-sink and cluster self-organized Wireless Sensor Networks

Self-organization is a key issue in wireless sensor networks being a common answer to optimize the operation of network nodes. The choice for a particular structure has been handled through empirical or intuitive approaches rather than being based on studies that proved the suitability to each scenario. First, several typical application scenarios found in wireless sensor networks are presented and extrapolated to a set of simulated ones. Second, a comparative evaluation between several self-organized structures used in wireless sensor networks in terms of energy efficiency and network throughput is presented. From simulation results, one concludes that the multi-sink solution presents lower energy consumption and lower packet loss ratio, enhancing network lifetime while improving network performance.