Delay-tolerant sensing data delivery for IoT network by using signal strength information

Abstract

Conventional cellular technology is being extended for Internet of Thing(IoT) network, which needs to support relatively small amount of traffic generated by a large number of devices. This so-called Machine-Type Communication(MTC) cellular however is not a universal solution for IoT connectivity. It may be infeasible to equip some IoT devices with MTC cellular due to manufacturing cost, operation fee, limited battery lifetime, etc. For low-power IoT devices, using shorter range radios (e.g., IEEE 802.15.4) is more viable. Sensing data generated by the IoT devices are delivered to the IoT gateway by the forwarding of other nodes without relying on cellular links. Such peer-to-peer data delivery may utilize ’muling’ (i.e., data is stored and carried by mobile nodes) if the forwarding path may not be immediately available. Since muling will extend the delivery delay, it is suitable for the IoT applications that can tolerate relatively large message delivery delay. In this paper, we propose a peer-to-peer DTN (Delay Tolerant Network) routing scheme for IoT network. To enhance routing efficiency, we utilize the location information of the nodes. Our scheme does not rely on expensive location tracking methods like GPS or triangulation. Instead, we use RSSI (Received Signal Strength Indicator) which is readily available in virtually any wireless network at low cost. It is shown that the proposed scheme clearly outperforms the existing schemes via extensive simulations.