Network coding-aware data aggregation for a distributed Wireless Sensor Network

Abstract

Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) are immensely deployed for monitoring information like humidity, temperature and soil fertility. As the sensor nodes sense data and floods them in the network, the network traffic increases and may result in congestion which leads to broadcast storm problem. This paper addresses the utility of network coding to optimize data aggregation and to decrease the number of transmitted messages in a WSN. A coding-aware deployment strategy is presented which create opportunity for network coding at aggregate sensor nodes. Our deployment strategy leads to a topology which supports many-to-many network flows (multiple sources and multiple sink network flow). It also gives protection against multiple failures in the network. Furthermore, we propose a heuristic that restricts unnecessary transmissions.