TDMA scheduling schemes targeting high channel utilization for energy‐harvesting wireless sensor networks

Abstract

Abstract As a contention‐free channel access protocol, Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) is widely applied in Energy Harvesting Wireless Sensor Networks (EH‐WSNs) due to ease of implementation. TDMA scheduling in EH‐WSNs faces the problem of low channel utilization since time slots assigned to some nodes may not be used by them due to shortage of energy or data. It is important to design TDMA scheduling schemes that enhance channel utilization. In this paper, the Fixed Frame Size Scheme (FFSS) and the Adaptive Frame Size Scheme (AFSS) are proposed to improve channel utilization of EH‐WSNs. The FFSS aims at the optimal TDMA slot assignment for the TDMA scheduling with fixed frame size, and the AFSS considers the TDMA with variable frame size and targets both the optimal frame size and the optimal slot assignment. The optimization problems maximizing channel utilization are formulated for the FFSS and the AFSS, respectively, which take the upcoming energy and data into account. The optimization problems are transformed into assignment‐like problems and solved by the Hungarian‐based algorithm in polynomial time. Simulation results indicate that the proposed FFSS and AFSS can considerably improve channel utilization in the EH‐WSNs compared with the existing TDMA scheduling schemes.

Keywords

• Optimisation techniques
• Multiple access communication
• Protocols
• Wireless sensor networks
• Telecommunication systems (energy utilisation)