Number of connection restriction in wireless sensor networks and its influence on network lifetime

A wireless sensor network consists of at least one base station and multiple sensor nodes. These nodes are battery powered and are expected to operate for a long time therefore energy efficiency becomes a crucial design objective. Optimization of network lifetime can be achieved by balancing the energy consumption within the network. This requires nodes to split their flows to many other nodes to use them as relays towards the base station. Thus, some nodes have many inward connections and some have many outward connections. This situation is not desirable since it increases network complexity and requires huge routing tables. In this study, data splitting characteristics of sensor nodes have been examined through a linear programming framework. In the second stage, using a mixed integer programming framework, the influence of restricting inward and outward connection count on the network lifetime has been analyzed.