Interference aware construction of multi- and convergecast trees in wireless sensor networks

Abstract

In this paper we consider a problem of building a forwarding tree for multicast and convergecast traffic in short-range wireless sensor networks. Interference awareness and energy efficiency are the major design objectives for WSN protocols in order to maximize the network lifetime. The existing multicast algorithms aim at constructing low-energy cost trees. Adding interference-awareness, however, leads to increased throughput and further reduces the energy consumption by avoiding unnecessary retransmissions due to interference-induced packet losses. We propose a Localized Area-Spanning Tree (LAST) protocol for wireless short-range sensor networks. Unlike previous similar protocols, the LAST protocol reaches all the nodes in a given geographical area, rather than only specific individual nodes. When creating the tree, the protocol jointly optimizes the energy cost and the interference imposed by the structure. © 2008 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.