A reactive role assignment for data routing in event-based wireless sensor networks.

Abstract

In this work, we show how we can design a routing protocol for wireless sensor networks (WSNs) to support an information-fusion application. Regarding the application, we consider that WSNs apply information fusion techniques to detect events in the sensor field. Particularly, in event-driven scenarios there might be long intervals of inactivity. However, at a given instant, multiple sensor nodes might detect one or more events, resulting in high traffic. To save energy, the network should be able to remain in a latent state until an event occurs, then the network should organize itself to properly detect and notify the event. Based on the premise that we have an information-fusion application for event detection, we propose a role assignment algorithm, called Information-Fusion-based Role Assignment(InFRA), to organize the network by assigning roles to nodes only when events are detected. The InFRA algorithm is a distributed heuristic to the minimal Steiner tree, and it is suitable for networks with severe resource constraints, such as WSNs. Theoretical anal ysis shows that, in some cases, our algorithm has aOð1 Þ-approximation ratio. Simulation results show that the InFRA algorithm can use only 70% of the communication resources spent by a reactive version of the Centered-at-Nearest-Source algorithm.