Data Gathering in Sensor Networks

Abstract

In this chapter we consider sensor networks, in which all nodes periodically produce some amount of information by sensing an extended geographic area. In each round all data from all nodes needs to be transmitted to an information sink for processing. Because of limited transmission ranges of the nodes, multi-hop routing techniques are applied to transmit the data from all nodes to the sink. Since different nodes partially monitor the same spacial region, data is often correlated. In this case and in order to save energy, data can be processed on its way to the sink. This technique is referred to as in-network data aggregation. For most algorithms presented here, we will assume that the energy cost required by data aggregation is negligible compared to transmission costs, though [270] presents a network model, which incorporates data aggregation and communication costs.