Mobile Sensor Networks: A Review

Mobile sensor networks (MSNs) have recently emerged as an important research area. Advances in sensor technology and computer networks have enabled mobile sensor networks (MSNs) to evolve from fixed sensor nodes to mobile nodes, from wired communications to wireless communications, from static network topology to dynamic network topology. However, these technological advances have also brought new challenges to processing large amount of data in a bandwidth-limited, power-constraint, unstable and dynamic environment. In recent years there has been a growing interest in the field of mobile wireless sensor networks. Recent advancements in the field of sensing, computing and communications have attracted research efforts and huge investments from various quarters in the field of WSNs. Most of the research related to sensor networks considers the static deployment of sensor nodes. The next step for sensor networks is to handle mobility in all possible forms. Mobility of sensor node can be considered as an extra dimension of complexity, which poses interesting and challenging problems.

In this paper we intent to present a review of network dynamics with mobility of the wireless sensor networks that depend on the process of sensor movement. Adding mobility to sensor networks can significantly increase the capability of the sensor network by making it resilient to failures, reactive to events, and able to support disparate missions with a common set of sensors. In this context, the mobility of sinks and mobility of sensors as well as the mobility of applications could be considered.