Abstract:

In order to balance energy consumption of network, a non-uniform grid partition mechanism (NuGPM) based on particle swarm optimization is proposed to improve network’s performance in wireless sensor networks. In NuGPM, network is split into <em>k</em> layers, the grids of the same layer have the same length, and the grids in different layers have different width. If the layer is closer to base station, its grid has bigger width. The particle swarm optimization algorithm is adopted to search the best width-combination of grids in all layers. The mechanism is able to make grids which are closer to base station have more nodes. By adopting this method, the grids near base station will have more energy to forward packets from grids of upper layer, and the hot spot problem near base station can be improved. The simulation results show that the proposed mechanism is able to balance the energy consumption of whole network, improve the hot spot problem near base station effectively, and extend the network’s lifetime.

Key words: wireless sensor networks, particle swarm optimization, non-uniform grid, the hot spot problem