Improving the performance of three dimensional wireless sensor networks with nodes displacement capability

Wireless sensor networks are one of the most important tools for information acquisition and environment identification in many application areas. Recent advances in the field of electronics and wireless telecommunications have led to the design and manufacture of sensors with low power consumption, small size, reasonable price and various applications. Most research in the area of wireless sensor networks has focused on two dimensional sensor networks while in the real world, most of the applications are three dimensional. Some research in this area has focused on underwater, space, forestry, and environment applications. The main objective of the current research is increasing network lifetime by defining new parameters and embedding them in the fuzzy clustering or fuzzy C-means algorithm that has been adapted for three dimensional wireless sensor networks. One of the parameters that has been used in this research is limited movement of sensors. By adding this ability to the network, there is an expectation of improvement in network performance. The results of the experiments indicate the positive effect of this ability on network performance and lifetime.