A Density Control Algorithm for Wireless Sensor Network

If all nodes of a sensor network worked simultaneously, not only there would be a lot of redundant information, but also they would have great adverse impact on network throughput, bandwidth, latency, energy and network lifetime.Consequently, density control technology is necessary for sensor networks, because it can reduce the number of active sensor nodes under the precondition of ensuring network coverage and network connectivity.This paper proposes SNDC (Sensor Network Density Control), a location-free and range-free density control algorithm for wireless sensor network to keep as few as possible sensors in active state to achieve an optimal complete connected coverage of a specific monitored area by periodically sending three beacons of different transmission ranges.Inactive sensors can turn off sensing modules to save energy and sleep.Simulation results show that this algorithm can prolong the network lifetime and guarantee the small number of active nodes and complete network coverage.