Energy-efficient transmission scheme for mobile data gathering in Wireless Sensor Networks

Energy conservation in Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) has always been a crucial issue and has received increased attention in the recent years. A transmission scheme for energy-constrained WSNs is proposed in this paper. The scheme, called MIHOP (MIMO and Multi-hop), combines cluster-based virtual MIMO and multi-hop technologies. The multi-hop mode is employed in transmitting data when the related sensors are located within a specific number of hops from the sink, and the virtual MIMO mode is used in transmitting data from the remaining sensor nodes. We compare the energy consumption of different transmission schemes and propose an algorithm for determining the optimal hop count in MIHOP. A controllable mobile sink that reduces the energy consumed in sensor transmission is also adopted for data collection. The theoretical analysis and the Monte Carlo simulation demonstrate that the proposed scheme significantly outperforms individual virtual MIMO, multi-hop technologies, and double-string networks in terms of energy conservation. The energy consumption levels under the MIHOP scheme are approximately 12.98%, 47.55% and 48.30% less than that under virtual MIMO schemes, multi-hop networks and double-string networks, respectively.