Multi-Channel Scheduling for Fast Convergecast in Wireless Sensor Networks

We explore the following fundamental question - how fast can information be collected from a wireless sensor network? We consider a number of design parameters such as, power control, time and frequency scheduling, and routing. There are essentially two factors that hinder efficient data collection - interference and the half-duplex single-transceiver radios. We show that while power control helps in reducing the number of transmission slots to complete a convergecast under a single frequency channel, scheduling transmissions on different frequency channels is more efficient in mitigating the effects of interference (empirically, 6 channels suffice for most 100-node networks). With these observations, we define a receiver-based channel assignment problem, and prove it to be NP-complete on general graphs. We then introduce a greedy channel assignment algorithm that efficiently eliminates interference, and compare its performance with other existing schemes via simulations. Once the interference is completely eliminated, we show that with half-duplex single-transceiver radios the achievable schedule length is lower-bounded by max(2nk − 1,N), where nk is the maximum number of nodes on any subtree and N is the number of nodes in the network. We modify an existing distributed time slot assignment algorithm to achieve this bound when a suitable balanced routing scheme is employed. Through extensive simulations, we demonstrate that convergecast can be completed within up to 50% less time slots, in 100-node networks, using multiple channels as compared to that with single-channel communication. Finally, we also demonstrate further improvements that are possible when the sink is equipped with multiple transceivers or when there are multiple sinks to collect data

Rapid Convergecast on Commodity Hardware: Performance Limits and Optimal Policies

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Algorithms for Fast Aggregated Convergecast in Sensor Networks

Fast and periodic collection of aggregated data is of considerable interest for mission-critical and continuous monitoring applications in sensor networks. In the many-to-one communication paradigm, referred to as convergecast, we focus on applications wherein data packets are aggregated at each hop en-route to the sink along a tree-based routing topology, and address the problem of minimizing the convergecast schedule length by utilizing multiple frequency channels. The primary hindrance in minimizing the schedule length is the presence of interfering links. We prove that it is NP-complete to determine whether all the interfering links in an arbitrary network can be removed using at most a constant number of frequencies. We give a sufficient condition on the number of frequencies for which all the interfering links can be removed, and propose a polynomial time algorithm that minimizes the schedule length in this case. We also prove that minimizing the schedule length for a given number of frequencies on an arbitrary network is NP-complete, and describe a greedy scheme that gives a constant factor approximation on unit disk graphs. When the routing tree is not given as an input to the problem, we prove that a constant factor approximation is still achievable for degree-bounded trees. Finally, we evaluate our algorithms through simulations and compare their performance under different network parameters

W-MAC: A Workload-Aware MAC Protocol for Heterogeneous Convergecast in Wireless Sensor Networks

The power consumption and latency of existing MAC protocols for wireless sensor networks (WSNs) are high in heterogeneous convergecast, where each sensor node generates different amounts of data in one convergecast operation. To solve this problem, we present W-MAC, a workload-aware MAC protocol for heterogeneous convergecast in WSNs. A subtree-based iterative cascading scheduling mechanism and a workload-aware time slice allocation mechanism are proposed to minimize the power consumption of nodes, while offering a low data latency. In addition, an efficient schedule adjustment mechanism is provided for adapting to data traffic variation and network topology change. Analytical and simulation results show that the proposed protocol provides a significant energy saving and latency reduction in heterogeneous convergecast, and can effectively support data aggregation to further improve the performance

A Green TDMA Scheduling Algorithm for Prolonging Lifetime in Wireless Sensor Networks

Fast data collection is one of the most important research issues for Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs). In this paper, a TMDA based energy consumption balancing algorithm is proposed for the general k-hop WSNs, where one data packet is collected in one cycle. The optimal k that achieves the longest network life is obtained through our theoretical analysis. Required time slots, maximum energy consumption and residual network energy are all thoroughly analyzed in this paper. Theoretical analysis and simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm in terms of energy efficiency and time slot scheduling

Adaptive TDMA Slot Assignment Using Request Aggregation in Wireless Sensor Networks

AbstractTDMA-based MAC protocols are considered an energy effcient solution to prolong wireless sensor network lifetime. However, their drawbacks such as complexity of slot assignment and schedule maintenance and adaptivity to varying traffc conditions are yet to be handled in an effcient way. In this paper we present On-demand Convergecast Scheduling based (OCS) MAC protocol. It is a centralized and adaptive multihop scheduling-based TDMA protocol which supports convergecast applications. OCS adopts a novel requests aggregation mechanism for adaptive slot assignment such that time slots are assigned on-demand to currently active sources as well as relays. The performance of OCS is compared to existing protocols based on simulations in ns-2. Results show that OCS outperforms protocols such as Z-MAC, S-MAC, and others in terms of delay, throughput and energy effciency

The Minimum Scheduling Time for Convergecast in Wireless Sensor Networks

We study the scheduling problem for data collection from sensor nodes to the sink node in wireless sensor networks, also referred to as the convergecast problem. The convergecast problem in general network topology has been proven to be NP-hard. In this paper, we propose our heuristic algorithm (finding the minimum scheduling time for convergecast (FMSTC)) for general network topology and evaluate the performance by simulation. The results of the simulation showed that the number of time slots to reach the sink node decreased with an increase in the power. We compared the performance of the proposed algorithm to the optimal time slots in a linear network topology. The proposed algorithm for convergecast in a general network topology has 2.27 times more time slots than that of a linear network topology. To the best of our knowledge, the proposed method is the first attempt to apply the optimal algorithm in a linear network topology to a general network topology

Balanced Multi-Channel Data Collection in Wireless Sensor Networks

Data collection is an essential task in Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs). In data collection process, the sensor nodes transmit their readings to a common base station called Sink. To avoid a collision, it is necessary to use the appropriate scheduling algorithms for data transmission. On the other hand, multi-channel design is considered as a promising technique to reduce network interference and latency of data collection. This technique allows parallel transmissions on different frequency channels, thus time latency will be reduced. In this paper, we present a new scheduling method for multi-channel WSNs called Balanced Multi Channel Data Collection (Balanced MC-DC) Algorithm. The proposed protocol is based on using both Non-Overlapping Channels (NOC) and Partially Overlapping Channels (POC). It uses a new approach that optimizes the processes of tree construction, channel allocation, transmission scheduling and balancing simultaneously. Extensive simulations confirm the superiority of the proposed algorithm over the existing algorithms in wireless sensor networks

The Hybrid Algorithm for Data Collection over a Tree Topology in WSN

Wireless sensor networks have wide range of application such as analysis of traffic, monitoring of environmental, industrial process monitoring, technical systems, civilian and military application. Data collection is a basic function of wireless sensor networks (WSN) where sensor nodes determine attributes about a phenomenon of concern and transmits their readings to a common base station(sink node). In this paper, we use contention-free Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) support scheduling protocols for such data collection applications over tree-based routing topology. We represent a data gathering techniques to get the growing capacity, routing protocol all along with algorithms planned for remote wireless sensor networks. This paper describes about the model of sensor networks which has been made workable by the junction of micro-electro-mechanical systems technologies, digital electronics and wireless communications. Firstly the sensing tasks and the potential sensor network applications are explored, and assessment of factors influencing the design of sensor networks is provided. In our propose work using data compression and packet merging techniques; or taking advantage of the correlation in the sensor readings. Consider continuous monitoring applications where perfect aggregation is achievable, i.e., every node is capable of aggregate the entire packets expected from its children as well as that generate by itself into a particular packet before transmit in the direction of its sink node or base station or parent node. Keyword: Aggregation, Data Converge-cast, Data fusion, Energy Efficiency, Routing and TDMA