An Algorithm for Distributing and Retrieving Information in Sensor Networks⋆

Replication of data items among different nodes of a wireless infrastructureless network may be an efficient technique to increase data availability and improve access latency. This paper proposes a novel algorithm to distribute data items among nodes in these networks. The goal of the algorithm is to deploy the replicas of the data items in a way such that they are sufficiently distant from each other to prevent excessive redundancy but, simultaneously, they remain close enough to each participant, such that data retrieval can be performed using a small number of messages. In most scenarios, our approach allows any node to retrieve a data item from a nearby node. The paper describes the algorithm and provides its performance evaluation for several different network configurations.