SYNAPSE++: Code Dissemination in Wireless Sensor Networks Using Fountain Codes

—This paper presents SYNAPSE++, a system for over the air reprogramming of wireless sensor networks (WSNs). In contrast to previous solutions, which implement plain negative acknowledgment-based ARQ strategies, SYNAPSE++ adopts a more sophisticated error recovery approach exploiting rateless fountain codes (FCs). This allows it to scale considerably better in dense networks and to better cope with noisy environments. In order to speed up the decoding process and decrease its computational complexity, we engineered the FC encoding distribution through an original genetic optimization approach. Furthermore, novel channel access and pipelining techniques have been jointly designed so as to fully exploit the benefits of fountain codes, mitigate the hidden terminal problem and reduce the number of collisions. All of this makes it possible for SYNAPSE++ to recover data over multiple hops through overhearing by limiting, as much as possible, the number of explicit retransmissions. We finall...

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2010
• Where: TMC
• Authors: Michele Rossi, Nicola Bui, Giovanni Zanca, Luca Stabellini, Riccardo Crepaldi, Michele Zorzi
• Keywords: Fountain Codes, Rateless Fountain Codes, TMC 2010, Wireless Sensor Networks