Energy Conservation in Wireless Sensor Networks: A Review

A wireless sensor network consists of a large number of sensor nodes which are deployed over an area to perform local computations based on information gathered from the surroundings. Each node in the network consists of a battery, but it is very difficult to change or recharge batteries. So the question is how to enhance the lifetime of the network to such a long time. Therefore, in order to maximize the lifetime of the network, the consumption of energy must be minimized. This is an important challenge in sensor networks as sensors can not be easily replaced or recharged due to their ad-hoc deployment in hazardous environment. In this paper, the main techniques used for energy conservation in sensor networks are discussed which include duty cycling scheme, data driven approaches, mobility-based schemes, energy efficient MAC protocols and node self scheduling scheme. These schemes can be used to improve the energy efficiency of the wireless sensor network so that the network can work with greater efficiency and high battery lifetime.