Transport Protocols for Wireless Sensor Networks: State-of-the-Art and Future Directions

Characteristics of wireless sensor networks, specifically dense deployment, limited processing power, and limited power supply, provide unique design challenges at the transport layer. Message transmission between sensor nodes over a wireless medium is especially expensive. Care must be taken to design an efficient transport layer protocol that combines reliable message delivery and congestion control with minimal overhead and retransmission. Sensor networks are created using low cost, low power nodes. Wireless sensors are assumed to have a finite lifetime; care must be taken to design and implement transport layer algorithms that allow maximum network lifetime. In this paper we present current and future challenges in the design of transport layers for sensor networks. Current transport layer protocols are compared based on how they implement reliable message delivery, congestion control, and energy efficiency.

[1]  Ramesh Govindan,et al.  Understanding packet delivery performance in dense wireless sensor networks , 2003, SenSys '03.

[2]  Mark D. Yarvis,et al.  Real-world experiences with an interactive ad hoc sensor network , 2002, Proceedings. International Conference on Parallel Processing Workshop.

[3]  Deborah Estrin,et al.  Guest Editors' Introduction: Overview of Sensor Networks , 2004, Computer.

[4]  Özgür B. Akan,et al.  Spatio-temporal correlation: theory and applications for wireless sensor networks , 2004, Comput. Networks.

[5]  Adam Dunkels,et al.  Connecting Wireless Sensornets with TCP/IP Networks , 2004, WWIC.

[6]  Satish Kumar,et al.  Next century challenges: scalable coordination in sensor networks , 1999, MobiCom.

[7]  Jan M. Rabaey,et al.  PicoRadio Supports Ad Hoc Ultra-Low Power Wireless Networking , 2000, Computer.

[8]  Adam Dunkels,et al.  Making TCP/IP Viable for Wireless Sensor Networks , 2004 .

[9]  Sally Floyd,et al.  Modeling wireless links for transport protocols , 2004, CCRV.

[10]  Raghupathy Sivakumar,et al.  Sink-to-sensors reliability in sensor networks , 2003, MOCO.

[11]  Mike Horton,et al.  The platforms enabling wireless sensor networks , 2004, CACM.

[12]  Chieh-Yih Wan,et al.  PSFQ: a reliable transport protocol for wireless sensor networks , 2002, WSNA '02.

[13]  John Heidemann,et al.  RMST: reliable data transport in sensor networks , 2003, Proceedings of the First IEEE International Workshop on Sensor Network Protocols and Applications, 2003..

[14]  Ruzena Bajcsy,et al.  Congestion control and fairness for many-to-one routing in sensor networks , 2004, SenSys '04.

[15]  Mark G. Terwilliger,et al.  Overview of Sensor Networks , 2004 .

[16]  Ian F. Akyildiz,et al.  Sensor Networks , 2002, Encyclopedia of GIS.

[17]  Deborah Estrin,et al.  Directed diffusion: a scalable and robust communication paradigm for sensor networks , 2000, MobiCom '00.

[18]  Özgür B. Akan,et al.  ESRT: event-to-sink reliable transport in wireless sensor networks , 2003, MobiHoc '03.

[19]  Andrew S. Tanenbaum,et al.  Computer Networks , 1981 .

[20]  Wendi B. Heinzelman,et al.  Adaptive protocols for information dissemination in wireless sensor networks , 1999, MobiCom.

[21]  Mani Srivastava,et al.  Overview of sensor networks , 2004 .