Energy‐Efficient Long Range Repair Connectivity Policy for Maritime Wireless Sensor Networks

ABSTRACT Maritime wireless sensor network (MWSN) is integral to current communication networks, but its topology is vulnerable to environmental disruptions, leading to an unreliable and unstable communication link. In response to this challenge, we propose a connectivity repair algorithm to construct the connectivity path, which comprehensively considers the deployment location and the moving distance of mobile nodes. The proposed algorithm can achieve the purpose of connectivity repair under optimal energy consumption and mainly includes three steps. First, the Lagrangian tracking approach is used to locate the positions of drifting nodes, which are caused by wind, waves, and currents. Second, according to the location information of the drifting nodes, the length of the connectivity repair path is determined for preparing link establishment. Third, based on the energy consumption of the connectivity repair process, the closed‐form solution is derived for calculating the optimal deployment distance, which is between the nodes waiting for deployment on the connectivity repair path. Furthermore, the optimal number of mobile nodes is obtained under the minimum energy consumption, and the optimal deployment of mobile nodes and connectivity repair is finally achieved. The simulations demonstrate the effectiveness and ability of the proposed algorithm in extending the lifespan of MWSN.