Energy optimal routing for long chain-type wireless sensor networks in underground mines

Wireless sensor networks are useful complements to existing monitoring systems in underground mines. They play an important role of enhancing and improving coverage and flexibility of safety monitoring systems.Regions prone to danger and environments after disasters in underground mines require saving and balancing energy consumption of nodes to prolong the lifespan of networks.Based on the structure of a tunnel,we present a Long Chain-type Wireless Sensor Network（LC-WSN）to monitor the safety of underground mine tunnels.We define the optimal transmission distance and the range of the key region and present an Energy Optimal Routing（EOR）algorithm for LC-WSN to balance the energy consumption of nodes and maximize the lifespan of networks.EOR constructs routing paths based on an optimal transmission distance and uses an energy balancing strategy in the key region.Simulation results show that the EOR algorithm extends the lifespan of a network,balances the energy consumption of nodes in the key region and effectively limits the length of routing paths,compared with similar algorithms.

A Coverage-Aware Unequal Clustering Protocol with Load Separation for Ambient Assisted Living Based on Wireless Sensor Networks

Ambient Assisted Living(AAL) is becoming an important research field. Many technologies have emerged related with pervasive computing vision, which can give support for AAL. One of the most reliable approaches is based on wireless sensor networks(WSNs). In this paper, we propose a coverage-aware unequal clustering protocol with load separation(CUCPLS) for data gathering of AAL applications based on WSNs. Firstly, the coverage overlap factor for nodes is introduced that accounts for the degree of target nodes covered. In addition, to balance the intra-cluster and inter-cluster energy consumptions, different competition radiuses of CHs are computed theoretically in different rings, and smaller clusters are formed near the sink. Moreover, two CHs are selected in each cluster for load separation to alleviate the substantial energy consumption difference between a single CH and its member nodes. Furthermore, a backoff waiting time is adopted during the selection of the two CHs to reduce the number of control messages employed. Simulation results demonstrate that the CUCPLS not only can achieve better coverage performance, but also balance the energy consumption of a network and prolong network lifetime.

Dynamic Time Division Multiple Access Algorithm for Industrial Wireless Hierarchical Sensor Networks

Industrial wireless sensor networks adopt a hierarchical structure with large numbers of sensors and routers. Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) is regarded as an efficient method to reduce the probability of confliction. In the intra-cluster part, the random color selection method is effective in reducing the retry times in an application. In the inter-cluster part, a quick assign algorithm and a dynamic maximum link algorithm are proposed to meet the quick networking or minimum frame size requirements. In the simulation, the dynamic maximum link algorithm produces higher reductions in the frame length than the quick assign algorithm. When the number of routers is 140, the total number of time slots is reduced by 25%. However, the first algorithm needs more control messages, and the average difference in the number of control messages is 3 410. Consequently, the dynamic maximum link algorithm is utilized for adjusting the link schedule to the minimum delay with a relatively high throughput rate, and the quick assign algorithm is utilized for speeding up the networking process.

The New Architecture with Time-Spatial Consistency for 5G Networks

While operators have started deploying fourth generation(4G) wireless communication systems,which could provide up to1 Gbps downlink peak data rate,the improved system capacity is still insufficient to meet the drastically increasing demand of mobile users over the next decade.The main causes of the above-mentioned phenomenon include the following two aspects:1) the growth rate of the network capacity is far below that of user's demand,and 2) the relatively deterministic wireless access network(WAN) architecture in the existing systems cannot accommodate the prominent increase of mobile traffic with space-time domain dynamics.In order to address the above-mentioned challenges,we investigate the time-spatial consistency architecture for the future WAN,whilst emphasizing the critical roles of some spectral-efficient techniques such as Massive multiple-input multiple-output(MIMO),full-duplex(FD)operation and heterogeneous networks(HetNets).Furthermore,the energy efficiency(EE)of the HetNets under the proposed architecture is also evaluated,showing that the proposed user-selected uplink power control algorithm outperforms the traditional stochastic-scheduling strategy in terms of both capacity and EE in a two-tier HetNet.The other critical issues,including the tidal effect,the temporal failure owing to the instantaneously increased traffic,and the network wide load-balancing problem,etc.,are also anticipated to be addressed in the proposed architecture.(Abstract)

Network Coding-Aware Routing Protocol in Wireless Mesh Networks

Network coding mechanisms, such as COPE, can improve network throughput effectively in Wireless Mesh Networks（WMN）. While the Hybrid Wireless Mesh Protocol（HWMP） is suitable for WMN, its extension with COPE does not provide any added benefits; specifically, HWMP cannot establish paths with more coding opportunities. As a result, the advantages of network coding cannot be exploited sufficiently. This paper proposes improvements upon HWMP with a new, network Coding-Aware routing protocol（CAHWMP） for WMN. In the CAHWMP protocol, we propose a coding criterion based on data streams to devise an algorithm for actively detecting coding opportunities during path discovery. CAHWMP subsequently establishes paths using the codingaware routing metric, which can balance channel resource consumption and the gain due to sharing resources introduced by network coding. Simulation results show that CAHWMP can establish paths with more coding opportunities; as a result, it improves network performance such as network throughput.

An energy efficiency clustering routing protocol for WSNs in confined area

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) are important application for safety monitoring in underground coal mines, which are difficult to monitor due to natural conditions. Based on the characteristic of limited energy for WSNs in confined underground area such as coal face and laneway, we presents an energy- efficient clustering routing protocol based on weight (ECRPW) to prolong the lifetime of networks. ECRPW takes into consideration the nodes' residual energy during the election process of cluster heads. The constraint of distance threshold is used to optimize cluster scheme. Furthermore, the protocol also sets up a routing tree based on cluster heads' weight. The results show that ECRPW had better perfor- mance in energy consumption, death ratio of node and network lifetime.

Joint Design of Clustering and In-cluster Data Route for Heterogeneous Wireless Sensor Networks

A heterogeneous wireless sensor network comprises a number of inexpensive energy constrained wireless sensor nodes which collect data from the sensing environment and transmit them toward the improved cluster head in a coordinated way. Employing clustering techniques in such networks can achieve balanced energy consumption of member nodes and prolong the network lifetimes.In classical clustering techniques, clustering and in-cluster data routes are usually separated into independent operations. Although separate considerations of these two issues simplify the system design, it is often the non-optimal lifetime expectancy for wireless sensor networks. This paper proposes an integral framework that integrates these two correlated items in an interactive entirety. For that,we develop the clustering problems using nonlinear programming. Evolution process of clustering is provided in simulations. Results show that our joint-design proposal reaches the near optimal match between member nodes and cluster heads.