The Sink Node Placement and Performance Implication in Mobile Sensor Networks

Mobile sensor networks are desirable in a variety of application scenarios, in which information collection is no doubt of great importance. In this paper, we present a mobile sensor network architecture consisting of a potentially large number of mobile sensors and a single or multiple stationary sink nodes for sensing information collection. We formulate a distinct coverage measurement problem in term of sensing information collection; we study the relevant performance and examine the effect from a variety of relevant factors through extensive simulations. We demonstrate that the performance is not only affected by the sensor mobility and the transmission range between mobile sensors and sink node(s), but also by the distribution of mobile sensors and the number and locations of sink nodes. Based on the observation and analysis, we also provide some preliminary understandings and implications for improving the information collection performance.