An Efficient Data Collection Path Planning Scheme in Wireless Sensor Networks with Mobile Sink

Abstract Wireless sensor networks with mobile sink provide a mobile device to move into the sensing area for collecting the sensing data. It increases the flexibility and convenience of data gathering in such systems. Taking into account the energy consumption of mobile sink, the moving distance of mobile sink must be reduced efficiently. Hence, it is important and necessary to develop an efficient path planning scheme for the mobile sink in large-scale wireless sensor networks systems. According to the greedy-based algorithms, we adopt an angle bisector concept to create the moving path for the mobile sink. In this paper, a novel efficient data collection path planning scheme with an inner center approach is proposed to reduce the moving distance and to prolong the lifetime of mobile sink in wireless sensor networks. The relationship among moving path, moving distance, and number of sensor nodes are analyzed and discussed. Considering the communication range limitation of sensor nodes and the sensing area with obstacles, the proposed scheme makes an adaptive decision for creating the moving path of mobile sink. Simulation results demonstrate that the reasonable moving path planning can be achieved and the moving distance can be reduced for a mobile sink in wireless sensor networks.