Efficient Scheduling of Data-Harvesting Trees

Many applications in sensor networks demand for energy and time optimal routing of data towards a sink. In this work we present mechanisms to set up energy and time efficient TDMA schedules for a given routing tree under very strict limitations: Nodes have only a constant size memory and must agree on a schedule using only a minimum of communication for set up: Each node is only allowed to send a single message to each of its neighbors. We propose and analyze solutions in two different interference models. We show that, despite these tight restrictions, it is possible to compute energy optimal schedules which are almost time optimal and time optimal schedules which are almost energy optimal in the total interference model and we describe a 4-approximative algorithm in the k-local interference model. We also show how to extend these mechanisms to settings with packet loss, while still guaranteeing bounds on energy consumption