A Complete Framework for Minimum-Energy Agent Tree-Based Data Dissemination Scheme for Wireless Sensor Networks

The problem of efficiently disseminating data from a mobile stimulus (source) to multiple mobile users (sinks) in a large-scale sensor network has been challenging. We address this problem by proposing a minimum-energy tree-based data dissemination scheme, Dynamic Localized Minimum-Energy Agent Tree-Based Scheme (DLATS). We exploit the fact that sensor nodes are stationary and location-aware. In DLATS, each sensor node finds its Relative Neighborhood Graph (RNG) neighbors and an RNG is generated over the whole network. Then, the source broadcasts its position information to all the other nodes using our localized minimum-energy broadcast protocol, Improved RNG Broadcast Oriented Protocol (IRBOP). A dynamic agent tree is generated between each source and multiple sinks using our Shortest Direct Parent First (SDPF) method where the sinks are the agents (the leaves of the agent tree). Finally, each source uses IRBOP for multicasting data to the users over the agent tree. When the users move, the agent tree is efficiently reconfigured. When the stimulus moves, the new source broadcasts its position over the same RNG. We prove the correctness of DLATS and evaluate the performance through simulations. Results show DLATS outperforms previously proposed protocols for data dissemination in large-scale sensor networks.