The PL-Gossip Algorithm

Many recently proposed sensornet applications require large number of sensor nodes operating over long periods of time. In contrast to the first-generation sensornet deployments, these applications involve sophisticated internode communication rather than simple tree-based data collection. The examples include network maintenance, data-centric storage, object tracking, and various query engines. If these proposals for next-generation applications are ever to become reality, we will need solutions for self-organization of very large networks. We argue that these applications need methods for organizing nodes into recursive geometric structures, for example, proximity-based hierarchies. Such structures should provide naming that facilitates amongst others, routing, multicasting, and data aggregation and fusion. This paper presents a novel algorithm for dynamically organizing nodes in a sensornet into an area hierarchy. The algorithm employs gossiping, guaranteeing predictable maintenance traffic, which is a crucial property when it comes to energy conservation. Simulations show that the algorithm scales to large networks, works well in the presence of message loss and network dynamics, and has low bandwidth and memory requirements. Faculty of Sciences Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam De Boelelaan 1081A 1081 HV Amsterdam The Netherlands 2 K. Iwanicki and M. van Steen