Gossip-Based Self-Management of a Recursive Area Hierarchy for Large Wireless SensorNets

—A recursive multi-hop area hierarchy has a number of applications in wireless sensor networks, the most common being scalable point-to-point routing, so-called hierarchical routing. In this paper, we consider the problem of maintaining a recursive multihop area hierarchy in large sensor networks. We present a gossip-based protocol, dubbed PL-GOSSIP, in which nodes, by using local-only operations and by periodically gossiping with their neighbors, collaboratively maintain such a hierarchy. Since the hierarchy is a complex distributed structure, PL-GOSSIP introduces special mechanisms for internode coordination and consistency enforcement. Yet, these mechanisms are seamlessly integrated within the basic gossiping framework. Through simulations and experiments with an actual embedded protocol implementations, we demonstrate that PL-GOSSIP maintains the hierarchy in a manner that addresses all the peculiarities of sensor networks. More specifically, it offers excellent opportunities fo...

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2010
• Where: TPDS
• Authors: Konrad Iwanicki, Maarten van Steen
• Keywords: Area Hierarchy, Multi-hop Area Hierarchy, Sensor Networks, TPDS 2010