Alternative Path Communication in Wide-Scale Cluster-Tree Wireless Sensor Networks Using Inactive Periods

Erico Leão,Carlos Montez,Francisco Vasques,Paulo Portugal,Ricardo Moraes

doi:10.3390/s17051049

Abstract

The IEEE 802.15.4/ZigBee cluster-tree topology is a suitable technology to deploy wide-scale Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs). These networks are usually designed to support convergecast traffic, where all communication paths go through the PAN (Personal Area Network) coordinator. Nevertheless, peer-to-peer communication relationships may be also required for different types of WSN applications. That is the typical case of sensor and actuator networks, where local control loops must be closed using a reduced number of communication hops. The use of communication schemes optimised just for the support of convergecast traffic may result in higher network congestion and in a potentially higher number of communication hops. Within this context, this paper proposes an Alternative-Route Definition (ARounD) communication scheme for WSNs. The underlying idea of ARounD is to setup alternative communication paths between specific source and destination nodes, avoiding congested cluster-tree paths. These alternative paths consider shorter inter-cluster paths, using a set of intermediate nodes to relay messages during their inactive periods in the cluster-tree network. Simulation results show that the ARounD communication scheme can significantly decrease the end-to-end communication delay, when compared to the use of standard cluster-tree communication schemes. Moreover, the ARounD communication scheme is able to reduce the network congestion around the PAN coordinator, enabling the reduction of the number of message drops due to queue overflows in the cluster-tree network.

Highlights

Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) are special ad hoc networks composed of a large number of low-cost, low-power, and low-rate wireless devices with capability for sensing and, occasionally, actuating upon the environment where they are deployed
As the communication scheme proposed in this paper addresses setting-up new communication paths in wide-scale cluster-tree networks, this state-of-the-art study does not consider the use of cross-layer approaches, as the use of this type of architectures would not be compatible with the use of standard IEEE 802.15.4/ZigBee cluster-tree networks
We present the ARounD (Alternative-Route Definition) communication scheme, that enables the definition of alternative communication paths for peer-to-peer message streams in IEEE

Summary

Introduction

Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) are special ad hoc networks composed of a large number of low-cost, low-power, and low-rate wireless devices (i.e., sensor nodes) with capability for sensing and, occasionally, actuating upon the environment where they are deployed. Recent advances in Micro-Electro-Mechanical systems (MEMs), microprocessors and low power radio technologies [2,3] enable the availability of sensor devices increasingly robust, with more storage and processing capabilities, and at a lower price In this context, the implementation of WSN wide-scale applications with energy-efficient and time-sensitive requirements have become an attractive research topic. It can be observed that, as the background data rate increases, the average end-to-end delay for the standard cluster-tree approach increases. This is mainly due to the accumulation of queued data packets in the cluster-heads near the PAN coordinator [19], causing further delays to the newly arriving packets.

Objectives

Results

Conclusion