DIRECT DATA COLLECTION METHOD BY TELECOMMUNICATIONS AERIAL PLATFORMS FROM THE WIRELESS SENSOR NETWORK NODES

Background. To collect monitoring data from the nodes of the wireless sensor network in the absence of public telecommunications infrastructure, it is proposed to use telecommunications aerial platforms (TA), built on the basis of UAVs. Each telecommunication aerial platform acts as a mobile gateway, dynamically creates virtual clusters in the network, determines the data collection points in the clusters and their flight paths, forms a schedule and exchanges data with cluster nodes depending on their location coordinates relative to the TA flight path, battery power level and volume of monitoring data. Objective. The aim of the paper is to improve the efficiency of data collection from wireless sensor network nodes by telecommunication aerial platforms. Methods. Unlike existing data collection methods, the proposed method: uses the FOREL (FORmal ELement) cluster analysis method for clustering the network, new rules for selecting data collection points and rules for data transmission between TA and cluster nodes to achieve the specified target control functions: minimization of TA data collection time, maximization of network operation time, minimization of used TA. Results. The proposed monitoring data collecting method by TA from the nodes of the wireless sensor network allows increasing the efficiency of achieving a given target control function (reduce the time of data collection, increase the time of network operation, reduce the number of telecommunication aerial platforms used). Conclusions. The implementation of the proposed method into the specialized software of the wireless sensor network control system will improve the efficiency of the sensor node data collection process by telecommunication aerial platforms. Keywords: wireless sensor network; data collection method; network clustering; telecommunication aerial platform.