Fuzzy Logic-Based Path Planning for Data Gathering Mobile Sinks in WSNs

Mobile sinks (MSs) are capable of collecting data along specified paths in wireless sensor networks (WSNs). They are deployed as a popular alternative for data loggers, to which all nodes have to send sensory data. If MSs’ paths (or cycles) are not well determined, it might take a relatively long time for the MSs to make a round trip. Recent research works have proposed methods to determine rendezvous points (RPs) that the MSs must pass by to collect data, with the aim of reducing the data-collection time. Determination of the number of RPs is important, and it is challenging to make ensure that there are sufficient RPs widely located throughout a sensor network, forming a circle along which the MSs can spend limited time traveling. This research presents a method for designing paths and pinpointing RPs for MSs to collect data, as well as determining the next hop to relay data for each sensor node. Instead of reducing the MSs’ travel time, the focus of this research is to preserve the energy of all sensor nodes in WSNs. Our method determines the maximum number of RPs such that the MSs can run through each RP’s communication range (within a time constraint) without depleting their own energy. The method comprises three main steps. First, we calculate the number of RPs and design the MS path. Second, the exact data-collection points are determined. The last step is to specify the path along which sensory data are relayed to the MS. In our experiments, we simulate two WSNs of different sizes. The results show that our method outperforms the others by 70%-80% in terms of the sensor node uptime, power consumption, MS traveling time and the number of RPs.