A demand-based slot assignment algorithm for energy-aware reliable data transmission in wireless sensor networks
This paper proposes a new demand-based slot assignment (DSA) algorithm that allocates time slots based on the bandwidth demand of each node in a tree topology. DSA is basically different from SDA, DAS, or WIRES that assigns one large slot for each sensor node, but is similar to the frame-slot pair assignment (FSA) algorithm used in TreeMAC in that it assigns multiple small size slots for sensor nodes per each data collection round. DSA tackles the shortcomings of FSA in terms of the capability of packet aggregation and filtering, the balance of energy consumption, and bandwidth utilization. In general, nodes at lower tree depths process more packets and consume more energy than ones at higher tree depths, and thus the imbalanced energy consumption shortens network lifetime. The proposed algorithm allocates a sequence of receiving slots and then a sequence of sending slots to each node. This approach not only reduces the power consumption of nodes at lower depths significantly by allowing efficient data aggregation and filtering, but also it improves bandwidth utilization by removing wasted slots. In addition, the RTS and CTS messages are used within a slot for ensuring the reliability of data transmission and updating sync time between a child and its parent. Simulation results show that DSA far outperforms FSA in energy consumption and bandwidth utilization.
aggregation filtering power consumption sensor mac slot scheduling