Mobile sink path planning for data collection in three-dimensional wireless sensor network

Abstract In wireless sensor networks, some nodes consume a significant amount of energy during multi-hop data transmission. This will lead to the premature death of these nodes and form energy holes. To solve the energy hole problem, sink mobility is offered as a remedy. Mobility of the sinks has been the subject of numerous studies but most of them consider the situation where nodes are on the same plane. In this study, A mathematical model for mobile sink path planning in 3D WSN was established. The travel distance of mobile sink between cluster heads is shortened by using geometric methods. A hybrid PSO algorithm was used to determine the optimal visiting sequence. The simulation results show that the data collection efficiency of the optimal path found when docking at the selected docking points is 6.13% higher than that of the optimal path found when docking at the cluster heads.