Abstract:The efficiency of energy consumption in wireless sensor networks is closely related to the traffic of each node. In this paper, the issue of load balancing in wireless sensor networks is researched on the microscopic scale. Based on an equiprobable routing model, the relationship between topology structure and data traffic distribution is established. Based on the analytical results, the definition and the distributed algorithm of load density of any node in many-to-one sensor networks are proposed. Based on the first order radio model, the relationship between load density and network lifetime is analyzed. In spite of the fact that complete load balancing in wireless sensor network is unreachable, suboptimal load balancing is possible if the topology structure is well-designed. Simulation results show that the load distribution of wireless sensor networks can be described accurately by load density, and load balancing of most nodes is possible if topology structure meets suboptimal conditions.