A ferry-assisted solution for forwarding function in Wireless Sensor Networks

To ensure connectivity in highly sparse Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs), we consider a Ferry-assisted Wireless Sensor Network(FWSN). In our FWSN, message ferries moving along concentric annulus collect the static sensors generated packets and propagate them throughout a ferry-to-ferry forwarding schema to the sink. In this paper we present a queueing model to study and analyze the FWSN behavior. We will adapt a queuing model with finite queues which will allow us to analyze the network behavior in tens of packet loss using an analytic model. The objective of this work is to provide a way to optimize the energy consumption for each individual sensor. In our approach we consider a sensor Ferry, which is a mobile sensor with the capacity to provide the control operation upon the other fixed sensors within to network. Therefor, these fixed sensors will have to perform less control operations which will reduce their individual energy consumption. By doing so, this will automatically impact positively on to the lifetime of the network. © 2014 IEEE.