Optimal topologies for wireless sensor networks

Since untethered sensor nodes operate on battery, and because they must communicate through a multi-hop network, it is vital to optimally configure the transmit power of the nodes both to conserve power and optimize spatial reuse of a shared channel. Current topology control algorithms try to minimize radio power while ensuring connectivity of the network. We propose that another important metric for a sensor network topology will involve consideration of hidden nodes and asymmetric links. Minimizing the number of hidden nodes and asymmetric links at the expense of increasing the transmit power of a subset of the nodes may in fact increase the longevity of the sensor network. In this paper we explore a distributed evolutionary approach to optimizing this new metric. Inspiration from the Particle Swarm Optimization technique motivates a distributed version of the algorithm. We generate topologies with fewer hidden nodes and asymmetric links than a comparable algorithm and present some results that indicate that our topologies deliver more data and last longer.