Joint node deployment and wireless energy transfer scheduling for immortal sensor networks

The lifetime of a wireless sensor network (WSN) is limited by the lifetime of the individual sensor nodes. A promising technique to extend the lifetime of the nodes is wireless energy transfer. The WSN lifetime can also be extended by exploiting the redundancy in the nodes' deployment, which allows the implementation of duty-cycling mechanisms. In this paper, the joint problem of optimal sensor node deployment and WET scheduling is investigated. Such a problem is formulated as an integer optimization whose solution is challenging due to the binary decision variables and non-linear constraints. To solve the problem, an approach based on two steps is proposed. First, the necessary condition for which the WSN is immortal is established. Based on this result, an algorithm to solve the node deployment problem is developed. Then, the optimal WET scheduling is given by a scheduling algorithm. The WSN is shown to be immortal from a networking point of view, given the optimal deployment and WET scheduling. Theoretical results show that the proposed algorithm achieves the optimal node deployment in terms of the number of deployed nodes. In the simulation, it is shown that the proposed algorithm reduces significantly the number of nodes to deploy compared to a random-based approach. The results also suggest that, under such deployment, the optimal scheduling and WET can make WSNs immortal.