On data transmission scheduling considering switching penalty in mobile sensor networks

This paper presents fundamental results for the problem of throughput optimization in heterogeneous mobile sensor networks by considering the penalty incurred when a mobile node switches to another receiver. We present online and offline algorithms determining which receiver each mobile node connects to at each time slot to maximize total throughput. We initially consider the network setup with a single mobile sensor, and expand our solutions for two models with multiple mobile sensors and limited capacity for stationary receivers. We analyze the difficulty of our problem, and also the lower bound of the throughput ratio of our online algorithms. Simulation results demonstrate the impact of the decision parameter used to determine the propensity to switch receivers on the throughput ratio.