Mitigation techniques for the energy hole problem in sensor networks using N-policy M/G/1 queuing models

In a traditional wireless sensor network (WSN), 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). From open literatures, most research works have focused on how to optimally increase the probability of sleeping states using multifarious wake-up strategies. There is a heavy overhead for packet collisions and channel contention due to the restarting process of medium contention. In this article, we propose a design strategy for optimizing power consumption of sensor node using the N-policy M/G/l queuing theory. With little or no extra management cost, the proposed queue-based power-saving technique can be expanded and applied to alleviate EHP economically and effectively. A mathematical analysis on the optimal control parameters has been made. Comprehensive design illustrations are presented to demonstrate some mission-oriented application scenarios, and hence the proposed approach indeed provides a feasibly cost-efficient design framework to mitigate EHP.