Flying Sinks: Heuristics for Movement in Sensor Networks

Movement in wireless and sensor environments changes the degree to which we can communicate. Whereas sensor networks are generally seen as static, in many situations there is at least one component which moves, the data sink, which flies over a sensor field to integrate information. Also, it is possible to imagine sensors which, after they are deployed, move once into position. There are quality of service tradeoffs related to movement, for movement takes energy and time, but can increase integration, which we can measure in two ways. The utility of the sensor field is related to the number and size of its connected components. The pragmatic utility measures the communication back to human interpreters, and is a function of the periodicity of the transmission activity.