Sampling Sensor Nodes to Extend the Longevity of Wireless Sensor Networks

Background & Objective: Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) are one of the most important elements in the Internet of Things (IoT) paradigm. It is envisaged that WSNs will seamlessly bridge the physical world with the Internet resulting in countless IoT applications in smart cities, wearable devices, smart grids, smart retails amongst others. It is necessary, however, to consider that sensing, processing and communicating large amounts of sensor data is an energy-demanding tasks. Recharging or replacing those battery-powered sensor nodes deployed in inaccessible locations is generally a tedious and time-consuming task. As a result, energy efficient approaches for WSN need to be devised in order to prolong the longevity of the network. Methods: In this paper, we present an approach that reduces energy consumption by controlling the sampling rate and the number of actively communicating nodes. The proposed approach applies compressive sensing to reduce the sampling rate and a statistical approach to decrease the sample size of sensor nodes. Results and Conclusion: The proposed approach is expected to significantly increase the lifetime of the network whilst maintaining the event detection accuracy.