Energy efficient adaptive sensing range for sensor network

The energy problem in wireless sensor networks (WSN) remains one of the major barriers preventing the complete exploitation of this technology. Sensor nodes are typically powered by batteries remains a limited resource to be consumed judiciously. Efficient energy management is thus a key requirement for optimal utilization of the sensor network technology. In this work we propose a novel method to optimize the sensor life by organizing the sensors into a maximal number of non-disjoint set covers with non-uniform sensing ranges. Sensors available in one set cover remain active at any instant of time while other sensors are in sleep mode to consume negligible energy. Each set cover is activated successively, thereby increasing the total lifetime of the network. It has been proved through extensive simulation work that the network lifetime can be increased by adjusting their sensing ranges as compared to sensors with fixed sensing ranges. This method employs genetic algorithm (GA) and greedy heuristic approach to determine optimal sensing range for efficient energy management in sensor network. Simulation results prove its efficiency over the fixed-range strategies.