A Distributed and Scalable Time Slot Allocation Protocol for Wireless Sensor Networks

Abstract

There are performance deficiencies that hamper the deployment of Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) in critical monitoring applications. Such applications are characterized by considerable network load generated as a result of sensing some characteristics of the monitored system. Excessive packet collisions lead to packet losses and retransmissions, resulting in significant overhead costs and latency. In order to address this issue, we introduce a distributed and scalable scheduling access scheme that mitigates high data loss in data-intensive sensor networks and can also handle some mobility. Our approach alleviates transmission collisions by employing virtual grids that adopt Latin Squares characteristics to time slot assignments. We show that our algorithm derives conflict-free time slot allocation schedules without incurring global overhead in scheduling. Furthermore, we verify the effectiveness of our protocol by simulation experiments. The results demonstrate that our technique can efficiently handle sensor mobility with acceptable data loss, low packet delay, and low overhead.