Analyzing multi-hop routing feasibility for sensor data harvesting using mobile sinks

This paper presents a modeling framework for characterizing the feasibility and impacts of multi-hop packet routing in sensor networks with mobile sinks. Data collection in sensor networks using mobile sinks has recently been investigated to improve energy performance at the cost of collection delay. Although the data collection can be accomplished with varying degrees of multi-hop routing, for a given data generation rate, as the extent of multi-hop routing increases, the round traversal time of the sink decreases. At the same time, the interference experienced by the mobile sink-to-sensor links and the consequent upload time go up. This paper characterizes these competing effects and develops a methodology for determining the extent of multi-hop routing that is feasible for given network and application parameters such as sensor data generation rate, wireless link capacity between sensors and mobile sink, the speed of the mobile sink and node density.

► Data collection in sensor networks using mobile sinks has been investigated to conserve energy.
► We develop a framework to study the impacts of multi-hop routing (kk) for data collection.
► The framework reveals the existence of bounds on multi-hop routing based on network parameters.
► Network simulation experiments confirm the existence of bounds for kk.