Lifetime Security Improvement in Wireless Sensor Network Using Queue-Based Techniques

A wireless sensor network (WSN) is envisioned as a cluster of tiny power-constrained devices with functions of sensing and communications. Sensors closer to a sink node have a larger forwarding traffic burden and consume more energy than nodes further away from the sink. The whole lifetime of WSN is deteriorated because of such an uneven node power consumption patterns, leading to what is known as an energy hole problem (EHP). The EHP is an embedded risk and would compromise the lifetime security of WSN. From open literatures, most research works have focused on how to optimally increase the probability of sleeping states using various wake-up strategies to prolong the lifetime of WSN. In this article, we propose a novel power-saving scheme to alleviate the EHP based on the N-policy queuing theory. With little or no extra management cost, the proposed queue-based power-saving technique can be applied to prolong the lifetime of the WSN economically and effectively. A mathematical analysis on the optimal control parameter has been made. Numerical and network simulation results validate that the proposed approach indeed provides a feasibly cost-effective scheme for improving the lifetime security of WSN.