Performance analysis of single-tree and split-tree approach in wireless sensor networks

This paper designs and implements a tree-based routing algorithm that allows a user to gather aggregated information from individual sensor node's readings in a large-scale sensor network setting. Obviously, the nodes near the roots of the tree-structures, which are called “hot spots”, will quickly deplete the sensor nodes' energy and dramatically shorten the network lifetime. Hence, we have implemented the split-tree mechanism to prolong the operational lifetime of the nodes, through splitting and pushing inwards the root of the tree that can be used concurrently providing the same spatial coverage for a given query-region, however, yielding better energy consumption than a single tree. We configure and run experiments on SIDnet-SWANS comparing the benefits in terms of energy consumption, lifetime extension and packet loss rate, and the experimental results also demonstrate our designed mechanism can not only prolong the sensor network lifetime, but also yield a considerable improvements on the robustness of the transmission.