Abstract:

Lifetime is a critical parameter in wireless sensor network. The lifetime maximization in wireless sensor network is investigated with the assistance of network coding. A new hypergraph model for the network is proposed, which is used to exploit the broadcast property of radio transmission instead of hiding it under an artificial pointto-point abstraction. To facilitate the measurement of energy consumption, a hyperarc-based linear pricing model is also proposed for broadcasting links. Besides the energy consumed in transmission, energy consumed for reception is discussed. The optimization problem is described by mathematical formulations. Simulation results show that the proposed pricing model is more precise than the point-to-point model, thus the optimal resource allocation solved by the proposed optimization method can achieve longer lifetime. Moreover, network coding does have the ability to prolong the lifetime of the wireless sensor network.

Key words: communication technology, network coding, wireless sensor network, lifetime, energy consumption