ON/OFF protocol for the life extension of low energy level nodes in wireless sensor networks

WSNs are complex systems that are mainly limited by the battery life of the nodes in order to have an adequate performance. In most cases, it is possible to have a re-deployment of new nodes in order to prolong the system´s lifetime. This leads to a situation where some nodes have a low energy level while other nodes have high energy levels. This scenario can also be found due to the use of a preferred route, where intermediate nodes consume more energy than the rest of the nodes. In these environments, and others, low energy nodes, i.e., nodes with very low residual energy must reduce the energy consumption since their operational lifetime is almost over. In this paper, we consider cluster-based WSNs for the event detection where there is a high concentration of high energy nodes and a low concentration of low energy nodes. Building on this, we propose to extend the battery life of low energy nodes in the steady stat phase. Specifically, we consider the case where nodes have random times in the sleep and active modes. To this end, we consider the case where dwelling times in each mode are related to the residual energy level. The system and the impact of the proposed residual energy-based mechanisms are evaluated and studied.