Heterogeneous sensor networks with effect of small world

In this paper, a heterogeneous sensor network with effect of small world (SW_HSN) is built on the super links consisting of the super nodes with more energy and processing capability. A routing policy is put forward in this network, and an analytical grid model is developed in order to analyze the gain in path length reduction and energy saving by using the super links. The innovative point consists in adopting the Genetic Algorithm (GA) to optimally deploy the super links for obtaining the optimal energy efficiency. The results reveal that adding a few appropriate super links to a wireless sensor network can evidently reduce the average energy expenditure per sensor node. In a network with 11×11 dimension, the path length reduction and energy saving reaches at 50–70% with 4–12 super links, depending on the location of the sink.