International Journal of Information and Computer Science (IJICS) Volume 5, 2016 doi: 10.14355/ijics.2016.05.002
www.iji-cs.org
Scheduling of Multiple Applications in Wireless Sensor Networks Using Knowledge of Applications and Network Navdeep Kaur Kapoor, Shikharesh Majumdar, Biswajit Nandy Department of Systems and Computer Engineering, Carleton University, Canada
Abstract This paper presents a simulation based investigation of scheduling on wireless sensor networks hosting multiple applications. The applications vary in terms of their resource requirements such as the number of sensors required by the applications and the location of the required sensors relative to a sink node. The requests for the various applications need to be scheduled in a manner so as to reduce the overall mean response time to the users of the applications. This paper proposes scheduling algorithms that combine the knowledge of the characteristics of applications and the system in order to make a scheduling decision. Simulation experiments demonstrate that such algorithms provide a better performance than the knowledge free First Come First Served (FCFS) algorithm. Simulation results show that communication delays play a significant role in determining the overall mean response time in a WSN; and a scheduling algorithm that allocates a higher weight to higher hop distances of sensors from the cluster head provides the best performance. Keywords Resource Management; Scheduling; Sensor Grids; Wireless Sensor Network
Introduction Sensor grids are the integration of two technologies: wireless sensor networks and the grid. Real time information about a phenomenon being monitored can be obtained from a wireless sensor network and can be processed in a computing grid [1]. Sensor networks are composed of tiny devices (sensor nodes) comprising of a sensor or multiple sensors, a battery, and a radio transmitter. The purpose of sensor nodes is to cover a particular geographic region with the aim of detecting a particular phenomenon. The detected information may be processed by the sensors and then communicated to a sink via other sensors based on a routing algorithm. Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) integrate detection, processing, and communication into the grid [1] [2] [3]. Similar to sensor grids, sensor cloud infrastructures that provide computing, storage, and software services for data obtained from wireless sensor networks are also becoming very popular [4] [5]. Sensors provide information in real time to the cloud and the immense processing power of the cloud is used to provide quick response to the users [6]. The research in this paper focuses on algorithms to provide a quick response to the users. Traditionally, sensors have been used in dedicated applications that may involve measurement of temperature, pressure, humidity, movement detection, radiation, and particulate levels. With the advancement of sensor technology and with the aim of increasing the cost efficiency of wireless sensor networks, multi-purpose wireless sensor networks are replacing sensor networks dedicated to a single application[7] [8] [9]. Some researchers rightfully suggest that no single application would warrant widespread deployment of a WSN and a WSN will be more effectively utilized by multiple diverse applications [9]. Hence, virtual sensor networks have emerged as collaborative wireless sensor networks supporting multiple applications [10]. A virtual sensor network may be formed from a subset of sensors in a wireless sensor network for serving an application at a given time. The sensor nodes comprising a virtual sensor network may belong to the same or different administrative domains. The nodes collaborate to complete a certain task and serve a request from users of an application. A wireless sensor network may comprise multiple such virtual sensor networks with each virtual sensor network serving as a specific application. Sensor nodes may belong to multiple virtual sensor networks. Virtual sensor networks are useful in case of applications that are deployed in the same geographic area [10] [11]. They are also useful in wireless sensor networks comprising of multi-function sensor nodes serving multiple
11