RBP: robust broadcast propagation in wireless networks

Varying interference levels make broadcasting an unreliable operation in low-power wireless networks. Many routing and resource discovery protocols depend on flooding (repeated per-node broadcasts) over the network. Unreliability at the broadcast-level can result in either incomplete flooding coverage or excessive re-flooding, making path maintenance either unreliable or expensive. We present RBP, a very simple protocol that bolsters the reliability of broadcasting in such networks. Our protocol requires only local information, and resides as a service between the MAC and network layer, taking information from both. We show that RBP improves reliability while balancing energy efficiency. RBP is based on two principles: First, we exploit network density to achieve near-perfect flooding reliability by requiring moderate (50-70%) broadcast reliability when nodes have many neighbors. Second, we identify areas of sparse connectivity where important links bridge dense clusters of nodes, and...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2006
• Where: SENSYS
• Authors: Fred Stann, John S. Heidemann, Rajesh Shroff, Muhammad Zaki Murtaza
• Keywords: Incomplete Flooding Coverage, Near-perfect Flooding Reliability, RBP Improves Reliability, Sensor Networks, SENSYS 2006