APAP: An adaptive packet-reproduction and active packet-loss data collection protocol for WSNs

Abstract

In lossy, large-scale wireless sensor networks (WSNs), data collection protocols face the challenge of balancing expected data transmission reliability and limited resources of sensors. Packet redundancy strategies have been widely employed to guarantee transmission reliability. However, these schemes often result in energy waste, especially in sink-neared hotspot districts. We propose the APAP to balance the two competing interests in energy-constrained WSNs. APAP mainly consists of two parts: adaptive packet-reproduction routing and active packet-loss mechanism. In the first part, we design a compensation function to compensate for packet losses and employ it in the packet-reproduction routing. Through available network parameters, such a function offers an optimized number of redundant packets. In the second part, we devise a novel distributed packet-loss mechanism to detect and intercept redundant packets in the hotspot area. Hotspot nodes record the simple traffic information in their vicinity on a local micro-table, these nodes transform their mode based on the records to reach a basic consensus with one-hop neighbors, they then collaboratively intercept excess packets from outside, thus the injection traffic can be mitigated. Such an interception area has the potential to be expanded and prolonged as the redundancy becomes more severe. Our mechanism imposes low-complexity requirements on general devices. Moreover, thorough mathematical analyses are offered for the performance of APAP. Simulation results indicate that with high reliability, the maximum node energy consumption is reduced by 44.7% to 66.3% compared to conventional protocols in one round. Besides, the network lifetime is prolonged by 91.1% to 200%.