A Novel Node Scheduling Algorithm for Solar-Powered Wireless Sensor Networks

By utilizing solar energy, the wireless sensor network has the potential to survive longer. However, the solar energy is varying with the time and is susceptible to the surrounding. How to effectively manage the dynamic harvested energy is important for the solar-powered wireless sensor network. In this paper, we design an energy scheduling for the wireless sensor network which consists of fewer sensors powered by the solar energy. First, to effectively cover targets and reduce coverage cost, we design a new node deployment scheme which can reduce required sensors while guarantees target coverage. Then, based on this deployment, we propose a node scheduling algorithm to improve network lifetime. Through choosing relays and dynamically adjusting the role of the sensor with different energy levels, the harvested energy can be utilized effectively, and the network lifetime is prolonged. The simulation results verify that our proposed scheme can prolong the network lifetime while requires fewer sensors to achieve the coverage requirement.