Intelligent Gateways Placement for Reduced Data Latency in Wireless Sensor Networks

Many applications of wireless sensor networks (WSNs) have emerged over the last few years. In such networks resource-constrained sensor nodes are deployed to probe their surroundings and send the collected data to one or multiple gateways for processing. Therefore, proper placement of sensors and gateways in the area of interest facilities communications and allows for better operation of the network. While sensors in many WSN applications are randomly deployed, gateways often can be placed in a controlled manner. In this paper, we introduce two novel algorithms for proper positioning of gateways in WSNs. We employ genetic algorithms for selecting the best spot for placing each gateway so that sensors' data can be delivered to a gateway with the least latency. The two algorithms differ in their complexity and the quality of the solution that they can achieve and thus enable a design level trade-off. Validation results confirm the effectiveness of both algorithms in reducing the data delivery delay and their positive impact on other performance metrics such as the network lifetime.