Communication-aware algorithms for target tracking in wireless sensor networks

Abstract

This paper introduces algorithms for target tracking in wireless sensor networks (WSNs) that enable reduction of data communication cost. The objective of the considered problem is to control movement of a mobile sink which has to reach a moving target in the shortest possible time. Consumption of the WSN energy resources is reduced by transferring only necessary data readings (target positions) to the mobile sink. Simulations were performed to evaluate the proposed algorithms against existing methods. The experimental results confirm that the introduced tracking algorithms allow the data communication cost to be considerably reduced without significant increase in the amount of time that the sink needs to catch the target.