International Journal of Information and Computer Science (IJICS) Volume 3, 2014

doi: 10.14355/ijics.2014.03.007

www.iji-cs.org

Effective Load Balancing for Wireless Sensor

Networks with Multiple Mobile Sinks
Keiichi Endo*1, Shingo Yano2, Dai Okano3
Graduate School of Science and Engineering, Ehime University
Matsuyama 790-8577, Japan
endo@cs.ehime-u.ac.jp; 2yano.shingo@comp.cs.ehime-u.ac.jp; 3okano@cs.ehime-u.ac.jp

*1

Abstract
In this paper, we propose a method that extends the lifetime
of wireless sensor networks by using multiple mobile sink
nodes. The proposed method determines the positions of
multiple sink nodes based on remaining battery levels of
sensor nodes. When a sink node is moved, the new position
of the sink node is determined considering the distance to
other sink nodes and the distance to the sensor node with
the lowest remaining battery level. The proposed method
also considers remaining battery levels in constructing
routing tables. We conduct a comparative evaluation of the
existing and proposed methods via simulation to
demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.
Keywords
Wireless Sensor Networks; Multiple Mobile Sinks; Load Balancing;
Network Lifetime

Introduction
Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) are extensively used
in many applications, including systems that observe
natural environments and ecology, those that provide
logistical information for manufacturing and traffic
control, and such similar systems. Such networks have
therefore received increased attention in recent years.
In general, WSNs are wireless networks that observe
environments or physical conditions through the
cooperation of many sensor-equipped wireless
terminals (nodes) installed in a specific area. WSNs
include nodes in two different positions: sink nodes
and sensor nodes (Fig.1).Sensor nodes transmit the
information they measure and relay information measured

FIG.1 WIRELESS SENSOR NETWORKS

by other sensors, whereas sink nodes collect

observation information transmitted by sensor nodes.
A variety of information is collected by sensors,
including numerical data (e.g., temperature and
humidity), as well as image and video data.
Given that sensor nodes in a WSN are usually
powered by batteries and require long lifespans,
packet transmissions must be minimized and
transmission loads must be balanced as uniformly as
possible across all nodes. Therefore, in this study, we
propose a method that extends the lifetime of WSNs
by using multiple mobile sink nodes; more specifically,
we move sink nodes on the basis of the distances
between sink nodes and select packet transmission
destinations considering remaining battery level. We
performed a comparative evaluation of the existing
and proposed methods via simulation to demonstrate
the effectiveness of the proposed method.
In addition to this brief introduction, this paper is
organized as follows. We first discuss related research.
Then, we explain an existing method and the
proposed method. Afterwards, we present results of
our simulation and discuss these findings. Finally, we
summarize our study and discuss future work.
Related Work
Sensor nodes in WSNs are generally operated by
batteries, but because sensor nodes are spread across a
wide area, charging or exchanging batteries requires
extensive costs. Reducing the load on each node and
generating routes for effective transmission of
information is crucial in realizing long-term WSN
operation.
To address this issue, research related to new routing
protocols has been conducted, including a system that
identifies the destination of data to balance the
remaining amount of electricity in each node (Xia et al.,
2005), a system that stochastically selects the

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International Journal of Information and Computer Science (IJICS) Volume 3, 2014

destination of data (Ohtaki et al., 2006), and a system

that performs load balancing by using multiple sink
nodes (Liang et al., 2011).Research is also being
performed with the objective of measuring
observation regions by using multiple sensor nodes
and suppressing the occurrence of unobservable
regions to achieve the long-term operation of WSNs
(Katsuma et al., 2009).
Performing observations with many sensor nodes
requires each sensor node to use a number of relay
nodes to transmit information to a sink node, creating
the possibility of packet loss due to packet collision.
Further, because sensor nodes in the vicinity of a sink
node must often relay packets, their batteries become
depleted more quickly than other sensor nodes.
Research has been conducted on the use of a mobile
sink node to alleviate this problem (Lee et al., 2010),
(Luo et al., 2006), (Safdar et al., 2012).For further
alleviation, research has also been conducted through
the use of multiple mobile sink nodes (De et al., 2012),
(Khodashahi et al., 2010).
Existing Method
In this section, we explain an existing method (Marta
et al., 2009)that determines the positions of multiple
sink nodes based on remaining sensor node battery
levels and transmission histories.
In the existing method, when the remaining battery
level of a sensor node adjacent to a sink node falls
below a given threshold th , a search is performed for
a place to move the sink node. In this method, a sink
node moves to the same position as one of the sensor
nodes from which it is receiving packets (Fig. 2).

equal to th given by the following formula, the sink

node moves to the position of the sensor node among
these with the highest number of recent packet
transmissions.
th = (1 + )th

( > 0).

If no sensor node fulfills the above condition, a search

is conducted for a destination two hops away from the
sink node. If this also fails to find a destination, the
algorithm increases the number of hops by one and
searches once again. If no sensor nodes transmitting
data to the sink node fulfill the above condition, the
threshold th is multiplied by , with 0 < < 1.If the
remaining battery level of a sensor node adjacent to a
sink node falls below the new threshold th , a search is
performed for a place to move the sink nodeusing the
same procedure described above.
Packets transmitted from sensor nodes are relayed
according to routing tables. To construct these routing
tables at the initiation of network operations, control
packets that are called hop count packets are sent from
every sink node. Hop count packets include integers
called hop counts that represent the number of hops to
the sink node. When hop count packets are
transmitted from the sink node, the hop count is
initially set to one. Sensor nodes that receive the hop
count packet update the routing table if it is the first
hop count packet that they have received or if the hop
count value of the packet is lower than previously
received packets. If the routing table is updated, the
sensor node increases the hop count by one and
forwards the hop count packet to adjacent sensor
nodes. This procedure lets each sensor node know the
optimal destination sink node and the next hop node
(i.e., the node to which the sensor node should
forward packets).If a sink node moves, it sends out
hop count packets again to update the routing tables.
Proposed Method

FIG.2 AN EXAMPLE OF THE SINK NODE MOVEMENT

IN THE EXISTING METHOD

Below, we explain the scheme used to search for the

position to which a sink node moves. To minimize the
distance the sink node moves, the existing method
searches for destinations from among sensor nodes
one hop away from the sink nodei.e., sensor nodes
that are adjacent to the sink node. Among those sensor
nodes, if there exist nodes such that the remaining
battery level of every adjacent node is higher than or

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In this section, we explain the proposed method,

which adds three improvements to the existing
method explained in the previous section. When
determining the destination for a moving sink node,
the proposed method considers the distance to other
sink nodes and the distance to the sensor node with
the lowest remaining battery level. It also uses standby
sink nodes to preserve the optimal state of routing
tables. Further, in our approach, routing tables are
constructed considering the remaining battery levels.
We explain each of these respective improvements in
the subsections below.

International Journal of Information and Computer Science (IJICS) Volume 3, 2014

Position Determination Based on Distance Metrics

As with the existing method, when the remaining
battery level of a sensor node adjacent to a sink node
falls below a given threshold th , a search is
performed for a place to move the sink node. At this
point, the existing method expands the search range
by one hop, but in the proposed method, we
simultaneously search all sensor nodes transmitting to
the sink node. If there exist multiple sensor nodes such
that the remaining battery level of every adjacent
sensor node is higher than or equal to th given by the
same formula as the existing method, the destination
is determined by using one of the three methods
Proposed1, Proposed2, and Proposed3explained
below. In Proposed1, the destination is set to the
sensor node with the largest distance evaluation value
among the top ten sensors in terms of the remaining
battery levels. The distance evaluation value here
refers to the sum of the distance to the closest other
sink node and the distance to the sensor node
transmitting to the sink node with the lowest
remaining battery level. In Proposed2, the destination
is set to the node with the highest remaining battery
level among the top ten sensor nodes in terms of the
distance evaluation values. In Proposed3, the
destination is set to the node with the largest number
of recent packet transmissions among the top ten
sensor nodes in terms of the distance evaluation
values. We show the result of comparative evaluations
for these three methods later.
Using Standby Sink Nodes
In the existing method, when a sink node is moved, it
sends hop count packets to update the routing tables;
however, even if the number of hops to another
destination sink node has become smaller than the
number of hops to the current destination sink node
because of the movement of the current destination
sink node, it cannot change the destination. It is
possible to maintain the routing tables in the optimal
state by flooding hop count packets from all the sink
nodes whenever one of the sink nodes is moved;
however, the increased transmissions speed up battery
consumption.
Thus, the proposed method constructs a route to not
only the destination sink node that can be reached in
the smallest number of hops, but also a standby sink
node that can be reached in the second smallest
number of hops. When the destination sink node is
moved, a sensor node refers to the hop count included

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in the hop count packet received from that node. If the

hop count to the standby sink node is smaller than
that value, the node requests the standby sink node to
send hop count packets. This changes the destination
sink node when the number of hops to the standby
sink node is smaller, allowing the sensor nodes to
maintain the routing tables in the optimal state.
Constructing Routing Tables Considering Remaining
Battery Levels
In the existing method, the routing table is updated
only if the hop count of the hop count packet received
by the sensor node is smaller than those previously
received. We extend this in the proposed method by
selecting the node with the higher remaining battery
level as the next hop node if the hop count in the
received hop count packet is equal to the smallest hop
count in the packets previously received. For example,
node X in Fig. 3 selects node A as the next hop node
because the remaining battery level of node A is
higher than that of node B. The aim here is to extend
the overall lifetime of the network.

FIG.3CONSTRUCTING ROUTING TABLES CONSIDERING

REMAINING BATTERY LEVELS

Simulation
In this section, we explain the simulation we
performed in this study and present the results, and
then discuss the findings.
Simulation Conditions
We implemented a simulator in C++.In the simulation,
we first found optimal values for the initial value of
the threshold th and reduction rate .Next, we
performed a comparative evaluation of the proposed
and existing methods for the case in which sensor
nodes are uniformly distributed (uniform distribution)
and the case in which sensor nodes are distributed
according to a grid (grid distribution).Finally, we
confirmed that all of the three aforementioned
improvements to the existing method contributed to
extending the lifetime of the network.
The simulation area was 200 m 200 m, and 400

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International Journal of Information and Computer Science (IJICS) Volume 3, 2014

sensor nodes and four sink nodes were placed in the

area. In the initial conditions, the simulation area was
partitioned into four square regions with a sink node
placed in the center of each region. In the uniform
distribution case, the simulation area was partitioned
into 400 squares with a sensor node placed randomly
within each region (Fig. 4).In the grid distribution case,
the regions were divided in the same manner as the
uniform distribution case, but sensor nodes were
placed in the center of each square region (Fig. 5).The
transmission radius of the sensor nodes was set as
short as possible while preventing node isolation. In
the uniform distribution, the radius was set to 18 m,
whereas in the grid distribution, the radius was set to
15 m.

We represented time in the simulation via rounds.

During one round, all sensor nodes observed their
surrounding environment once each then transmitted
a sensing data packet to the destination sink node.
The remaining battery level was initially set to 1.
Transmitting a control packet ora sensing data packet
consumed 0.001 of the battery, receiving a packet
consumed 0.0005 of the battery, and sensing
consumed 0.0005 of the battery.
Parameter in the existing and proposed methods
was set to 0.05.

We conducted our simulation 100 times, and

evaluation was conducted by using the average results.
We identify the proposed methods by using an S when
we used standby sink nodes and B for routing table
construction considering remaining battery levels. We
attach these S and B indicators to the position
determination methods Proposed1, Proposed2 and
Proposed3.For example, the case in which position
determination method Proposed1 was used in
conjunction with standby sink nodes and routing table
construction considering remaining battery levels is
written as Proposed1SB.
Evaluation Indices

FIG. 4 NODE PLACEMENT IN THE UNIFORM DISTRIBUTION

We used network lifetime, minimum remaining

battery level, and average remaining battery level as
our evaluation indices. Network lifetime measures the
number of rounds that elapsed until the remaining
battery level of one of the sensor nodes in the network
reached zero. The minimum remaining battery level
measures the lowest remaining battery level of the
sensor nodes in the network. The average remaining
battery level measures the average remaining battery
level of all sensor nodes in the network.
Results and Discussion

FIG. 5 NODE PLACEMENT IN THE GRID DISTRIBUTION

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Fig.6 shows simulation results given various values

for the threshold th in both the existing and proposed
methods.When the initial value of the threshold th
was too high, the number of updates to the routing
table associated with sink node movement increased,
thus shrinking network lifetime. When the initial
value of the threshold th was set too low, the first
movement of the sink node was delayed, running
down the remaining battery level and shrinking the
network lifetime. Fig. 6 shows that setting the initial
value of the threshold th to 0.5 resulted in an
increased network lifetime. Thus, we set the initial
value of the threshold th to 0.5 in our simulations.

International Journal of Information and Computer Science (IJICS) Volume 3, 2014

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First, we consider the results of the simulation using

the uniform distribution (Fig. 8).As we set the initial
value of the threshold th to 0.5, the minimum
remaining battery level decreased more slowly after
reaching 0.5.Decreases in the average remaining
battery level were faster in the proposed method, but
decreases in the minimum remaining battery level
were slower. Because the minimum remaining battery
level affects the network lifetime, we conclude that the
proposed method is better for long-term observations.
FIG. 6RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN INITIAL BATTERY
THRESHOLD AND NETWORK LIFETIME

FIG. 7 RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THRESHOLD REDUCTION

RATE AND NETWORK LIFETIME

Fig. 7 shows our simulation results given various

values for the threshold reduction rate.These results
show that setting the threshold reduction rateto 0.6
extended the network lifetime. Thus, we set the
threshold reduction rateto 0.6 in our simulations.

Results of our simulation using the grid sensor node

distribution (Fig. 9) show that just as with the uniform
distribution, the proposed method maintained a
higher minimum remaining battery level. In the
existing method, the minimum remaining battery level
in the uniform distribution was approximately 0.24 in
round 25, but was approximately 0.19 in the grid
distribution. We attributed this difference to the fact
that because sensor nodes in the grid distribution were
placed at equal intervals, the number of adjacent
nodes was almost uniform. The existing method
determines destinations by considering the number of
packets transmitted from sensor nodes, but because
there was no major difference in the number of packet
transmitted when the number of adjacent nodes was
uniform, the sink node movement has a minimal load
balancing effect. Conversely, in the proposed method,
the minimum remaining battery levels in both uniform
and grid distributions were approximately 0.35 with
little variation in round 25.Thus, we conclude that the
proposed method had a large impact on load
balancing regardless of node distribution.

Next, we compared transitions of minimum remaining

battery levels and average remaining battery levels in
the proposed method (Proposed1SB) and the existing
method. Fig. 8 shows results for the uniform sensor
node distribution, and Fig. 9 shows results for the grid
distribution.

FIG. 9 REMAINING BATTERY LEVEL TRANSITION

IN THE GRID DISTRIBUTION

FIG. 8 REMAINING BATTERY LEVEL TRANSITION

IN THE UNIFORM DISTRIBUTION

The above results show that the proposed method is

superior to the existing method. We further show how
the three improvements to the existing method
contributed to increase in performance. In the
simulation below, the sensor nodes were placed in the
uniform distribution.

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International Journal of Information and Computer Science (IJICS) Volume 3, 2014

Fig. 10 compares the Existing SB, an improvement on

the existing method by using standby sink nodes (S)
and considering remaining battery levels in
construction of the routing tables (B), with the
proposed methods Proposed1SB, Proposed2SB, and
Proposed3SB.In the figure, we observe that among the
proposed methods, Proposed1SB had the slowest
decrease in minimum remaining battery levels. Thus,
we conclude that among the three proposed methods
for determining the destination position of the sink
node, the method that set the destination to the node
with the highest distance evaluation value among the
ten nodes with the highest amount of remaining
battery level was superior. We also observe that the
Proposed1SB maintained higher minimum remaining
battery levels than the Existing SB.

FIG. 10 COMPARING METHODS FOR DETERMINING

SENSOR NODE POSITION

Fig. 11 compares the use of standby sink nodes

(Proposed1SB) with not using standby sink nodes
(Proposed1B).Fig. 12 compares the construction of the
routing tables considering remaining battery levels
(Proposed1SB) with not considering remaining battery
levels (Proposed1S).From these results, we observe
that the use of standby sink nodes and construction of
routing tables considering remaining battery levels
both contributed to elongating network lifetime.
Based on the above simulation results, we conclude
that all of the three improvements to the existing
method are effective in lengthening network lifetime.
Conclusion
In this study, we proposed a load balancing method
for lengthening the lifetime of WSNs by using
multiple mobile sink nodes. Specifically, we
implemented the following three improvements to the
existing method: (1) determining the destination for a
moving sink node on the basis of the distance
evaluation values, (2) using standby sink nodes, and (3)
constructing routing tables considering remaining
battery levels. We conducted a comparative evaluation
of the existing and proposed methods via simulation
and demonstrated that the proposed method
preserved a higher remaining battery level in the
sensor node with the lowest remaining battery level.
We also confirmed that all three improvements
contributed to lengthening the network lifetime.
Our future research includes investigating methods to
further improve load balancing in the proposed
method by, for example, considering the number of
adjacent nodes. We also aim to confirm the
effectiveness of the proposed method through a proof
of concept experiment as opposed to just simulation.
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FIG. 11EFFECTIVENESS OF USING STANDBY SINK NODES

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FIG. 12 EFFECTIVENESS OF CONSTRUCTING ROUTING TABLES

CONSIDERING REMAINING BATTERY LEVELS

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Keiichi Endo was born in Osaka, Japan in

1980.He received his B.S. degree in
Engineering, M.S. and Ph.D. in Informatics
from Kyoto University, Japan, in 2003, 2005,
and 2008, respectively.
He is currently a Senior Assistant Professor
at the Graduate School of Science and Engineering, Ehime
University, Japan. His current research interests are in the
area of peer-to-peer and wireless networks.
Dr. Endo is a member of IPSJ, IEICE, and JSIAM.
Shingo Yano was born in Ehime, Japan in
1990.He received his B.S. degree in
Engineering from Ehime University, Japan in
2013.
He is currently a graduate student at the
Graduate School of Science and Engineering,
Ehime University, Japan.H is current research interests are in
the area of wireless sensor networks.
Dai Okano had B.Eng. and M.Eng. in
Applied Physics, Dr.Eng. in Information
Science and Technology from the University
of Tokyo.
He is currently an Associate Professor at the
Graduate School of Science and Engineering,
Ehime University, Japan. His research interests are in
Mathematics, Computations, and their applications.
Dr. Okano is a member of JSIAM, IPSJ, and SIAM. He
received the 40th Anniversary Best Paper Award in 2000
from IPSJ.

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