Optimal Sensor Data Harvesting Using A Mobile Sink

We investigate the idea of using a fixed-wing Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) as a mobile sink in a Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) to increase the network lifetime. We formulate and solve an optimization problem to minimize the scanning delay incurred by the UAV subject to a motion energy constraint. We also formulate and solve another optimization problem to minimize the total energy consumption for motion of the UAV and communication between the UAV and the sensor nodes subject to a delay constraint. These two optimization problems are for the case when the UAV collects the sensor data by communicating with certain special nodes called Cluster Heads. For the alternative architecture, where the UAV directly communicates with each sensor node, we investigate the performance using NS-2 simulations and provide several insightful observations. (C) 2018 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.