Interference and Congestion Aware Gradient Broadcasting Routing for Wireless Sensor Networks

TL;DR

This paper introduces a set of novel broadcasting algorithms for wireless sensor networks that adapt to interference and congestion, enhancing robustness, energy efficiency, and delay performance in harsh deployment environments.

Contribution

The paper presents three new algorithms—P-GRAB, U-GRAB, and UP-GRAB—that improve data transmission reliability and energy efficiency by accounting for interference and congestion levels.

Findings

P-GRAB performs best in geometry-aware networks.

U-GRAB is optimal for unreliable and unstable networks.

The combined UP-GRAB balances interference mitigation and congestion adaptation.

Abstract

This paper addresses the problem of reliable transmission of data through a sensor network. We focus on networks rapidly deployed in harsh environments. For these networks, important design requirements are fast data transmission and rapid network setup, as well as minimized energy consumption for increased network lifetime. We propose a novel broadcasting solution that accounts for the interference impact and the congestion level of the channel, in order to improve robustness, energy consumption and delay performance, compared to a benchmark routing protocol, the GRAB algorithm. Three solutions are proposed: P-GRAB, a probabilistic routing algorithm for interference mitigation, U-GRAB, a utility-based algorithm that adjusts to real-time congestion and UP-GRAB, a combination of P-GRAB and U-GRAB. It is shown that P-GRAB provides the best performance for geometry-aware networks while the U-GRAB approach is the best option for unreliable and unstable networks.