  In wireless sensor networks, a few sensor nodes end up being vulnerable to
potentially rapid depletion of the battery reserves due to either their central
location or just the traffic patterns generated by the application. Traditional
energy management strategies, such as those which use topology control
algorithms, reduce the energy consumed at each node to the minimum necessary.
In this paper, we use a different approach that balances the energy consumption
at each of the nodes, thus increasing the functional lifetime of the network.
We propose a new distributed dynamic topology control algorithm called Energy
Balanced Topology Control (EBTC) which considers the actual energy consumed for
each transmission and reception to achieve the goal of an increased functional
lifetime. We analyze the algorithm's computational and communication complexity
and show that it is equivalent or lower in complexity to other dynamic topology
control algorithms. Using an empirical model of energy consumption, we show
that the EBTC algorithm increases the lifetime of a wireless sensor network by
over 40% compared to the best of previously known algorithms.
