Information-directed routing in ad hoc sensor networks

—In a sensor network, data routing is tightly coupled to the needs of a sensing task, and hence the application semantics. This paper introduces the novel idea of information-directed routing, in which routing is formulated as a joint optimization of data transport and information aggregation. The routing objective is to minimize communication cost, while maximizing information gain, differing from routing considerations for more general ad hoc networks. The paper uses the concrete problem of locating and tracking possibly moving signal sources as an example of information generation process, and considers two common information extraction patterns in a sensor network: routing a user query from an arbitrary entry node to the vicinity of signal sources and back, or to a prespecified exit node, maximizing information accumulated along the path. We derive information constraints from realistic signal models, and present several routing algorithms that find near-optimal solutions for t...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2003
• Where: WSNA
• Authors: Juan Liu, Feng Zhao, Dragan Petrovic
• Keywords: Data Routing, Information-directed Routing, Routing, Sensor Networks, WSNA 2003