Performance evaluation of a converge-cast protocol for IEEE 802.15.4 tree-based networks

Abstract

A significant challenge in wireless sensor networks is the transmission of data from a large number of nodes to a central collection point. This is commonly called converge-cast communication. At present, the IEEE 802.15.4 and ZigBee standards are widely used in the design of wireless sensor networks. The latter standard defines a methodology for converge-cast communication in tree-based network topologies. A key limitation of this approach is its associated implementation complexity and a lack of robustness in the face of node failures. Moreover, there has been little experimental evaluation of its performance. This paper introduces an alternative converge-cast communication protocol that o..