Data Collection from Isolated Clusters in Wireless Sensor Networks Using Mobile Ferries

The usage of mobile ferries, under which we understand the nodes that transfer the data between other nodes in process of their movement, provides multiple benefits for Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs). In the paper, we suggest and evaluate several different approaches and protocols for collecting the data using such ferries from isolated WSN sub networks for different scenarios. We present the results of the simulations that reveal the effects of the WSN density, ferry speed, node sleep policy and maximum hop limitation on the performance and required resources for the tested protocols.