An Adaptive Energy-Aware Transmission Scheme for Wireless Sensor Networks

Abstract

In this paper, we proposed a scheme to extend the lifetime of a wireless sensor network, in which each sensor node decides whether to transmit a message or not and with what range to transmit the message, based on its own energy reserve level and the information contained in each message. The information content in each message is determined through a system of rules describing prospective events in the sensed environment, and how important such events are. The messages deemed to be important are propagated by all sensor nodes and with different transmission ranges depending on nodes energy resource level, while messages deemed to be less important are handled by only the nodes with high energy reserves level and transmitted with different transmission ranges based on nodes energy resource level. The results show that by adapting the transmission range based on nodes energy reserve and message importance, a considerable increase in network lifetime and connectivity can be achieved.