Duty cycle allocation to maximize network lifetime of wireless sensor networks with delay constraints

In wireless sensor networks, the routing control overhead could be large because multiple relays are involved in the routing operation. In order to mitigate this problem, a promising solution is to use tier‐based anycast protocols. The main shortcoming of these protocols is that they can consume a much greater amount of energy as compared with other competing protocols using deterministic routing. In this paper, we analyze, in depth, a tier‐based anycast protocol and develop a new technique of improving network lifetime. Our solution is guided by our analytic framework that consists of subtiering and a new forwarding protocol called ‘scheduling controlled anycast protocol’. We formulate the problem for finding an optimal duty cycle for each tier with a delay constraint as a minimax optimization problem and find its solution, which we show is unique. From the analytical results, we find that the network lifetime can be significantly extended by allocating a different duty cycle adaptively for each tier under a delay constraint. Through simulations, we verify that our duty cycle control algorithm enhances the network lifetime by approximately 70% in comparison with an optimal homogeneous duty cycle allocation. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.