2nd International ICST Workshop on Advances in Wireless Sensor Networks 2007

Research Article

Reliable Data Gathering in Tree-Based IEEE 802.15.4 Wireless Sensor Networks

  • @INPROCEEDINGS{10.1109/MOBIQ.2007.4451048,
        author={Daniele  Messina and Marco  Ortolani and  Giuseppe  Lo Re},
        title={Reliable Data Gathering in Tree-Based IEEE 802.15.4 Wireless Sensor Networks},
        proceedings={2nd International ICST Workshop on Advances in Wireless Sensor Networks 2007},
        publisher={IEEE},
        proceedings_a={IWASN},
        year={2008},
        month={2},
        keywords={Broadcasting  Energy management  Media Access Protocol  Proposals  Robustness  Routing protocols  Sensor phenomena and characterization  Sleep  Telecommunication network reliability  Wireless sensor networks},
        doi={10.1109/MOBIQ.2007.4451048}
    }
    
  • Daniele Messina
    Marco Ortolani
    Giuseppe Lo Re
    Year: 2008
    Reliable Data Gathering in Tree-Based IEEE 802.15.4 Wireless Sensor Networks
    IWASN
    IEEE
    DOI: 10.1109/MOBIQ.2007.4451048
Daniele Messina1,*, Marco Ortolani1,*, Giuseppe Lo Re1,*
  • 1: Dept. of Computer Engineering, University of Palermo Viale delle Scienze, I-90128 Palermo, Italy
*Contact email: dmessina@unipa.it, ortolani@unipa.it, lore@unipa.it

Abstract

This paper describes a routing protocol for enhanced robustness in IEEE 802.15.4-based sensor networks, which also addresses typical MAC layer issues, including power management, synchronization and link reliability. The algorithm uses a single-path strategy in error-free scenarios and resorts to using alternative paths when communication errors are detected. Our proposal exploits implicit acknowledgement of reception, a feature which may be provided by data aggregation when a broadcast medium such as the wireless channel is used. Therefore MAC layer acknowledgements are not used and errors recovery relies on a caching and retransmission strategy. The protocol requires synchronization among the nodes, which also allows the implementation of power saving techniques such as sleep/listen schedules. The performance of the proposed approach is evaluated through simulations, in which we study the overall network reliability and quantify the energy requirements, with different network sizes and protocol parameters.