Potential based virtual network for energy balance in WSNs

Multi-hop is widely used in wireless sensor networks to deliver packets; however, biased energy consumption rate (BECR) always happens when using this delivery method. BECR can cause energy hole and isolate some nodes, which would decrease the connectivity of the wireless sensor networks, and reduce nodes´ sensor effectiveness and network lifetime. Hence, we propose a scheme named potential-based virtual network model (PBVN) to alleviate this problem to prolong network lifetime. In this scheme, geometry, surface and geography information are combined to construct a cosine surface and determine virtual height of every node. Then, in the network, data could be delivered by driven of potential which is related to the virtual height of nodes in PBVN. Potential height could also shift periodically to balance the consumption of energy in the network. In all, our proposed scheme can avoid BECR and improve network lifetime, and it could be further extended by using geography-based routing protocols.