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Ambient energy harvesting is a solution to mitigate the typical finite energy supply of sensor nodes in wireless sensor networks (WSNs). On the one hand, the uncertainty of energy availability in energy harvesting systems makes network protocol design challenging. On the other hand, the fact that energy is continuously replenished opens up avenues for protocol design based on prediction of future energy arrivals. One of the key application scenarios for sensor networks is task allocation, in which a central entity allocates tasks to a set of geographically distributed sensor nodes to accomplish an overall objective. In this work, we consider a scenario in which the sensor nodes are equipped with devices capable of harvesting ambient energy, e.g., solar panels to harvest the Sun's energy, and focus on energy-aware strategies for adaptive task allocation. We decompose the static task allocation problem into two phases: scheduling of the task graph and task mapping to the appropriate sensor nodes. The solution objectives are to minimize the makespan and maximize the fairness in energy-driven task mapping (i.e., energy-balancing), while satisfying the task precedence constraints and energy harvesting causality constraints. We employ a novel energy prediction model which incorporates seasonal changes in solar energy harvesting as well as sudden weather changes. In case of an error in available energy prediction, a dynamic adaptation phase runs to avoid violation of the task allocation objectives. The performance of our proposed algorithms, in terms of energy-balancing and scheduling length, is evaluated through simulation and compared with other approaches, including a genetic algorithm as a baseline. We achieve more balanced residual energy levels across the network while attaining a near optimum scheduling length. By utilizing the dynamic adaptation phase, for certain runs of simulation, the missing ratio, which is the percentage of times in which the task allocation fails due to a temporal shortage of energy availability, is dramatically decreased.

Task allocation for wireless sensor networks with multiple concurrent applications (such as target tracking and event detection) requires sharing applications' tasks (such as sensing and computation) and available network resources. In this paper, we model the distributed task allocation problem for multiple concurrent applications by using a reverse combinatorial auction, in which the bidders (sensor nodes) are supposed to bid cost values (according to their available resources) for accomplishing the subset of the applications' tasks. Trust management schemes consist of a powerful tool for the detection of unexpected node behaviors (such as faulty or malicious). It is critical for participants (i.e., bidders and auctioneer) to estimate each other's trustworthiness before initiating the task allocation procedure. To address this issue, we introduce a real‐time trust management module for our auction system that is able to validate the reliable bid value and determine faulty nodes and malicious entities. The main objective of our task allocation scheme is to maximize the network lifetime by sharing tasks and network resources within applications, while enhancing the overall application quality of service (e.g., deadline). We also propose a heuristic two‐phase winner determination protocol to deal with the combinatorial reverse auction problem. Simulation results show that the proposed scheme offers the promising performance and efficiency. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.