Enabling composite metrics in collection protocols for WSNs

Latest research in composite metrics has shown potential to improve the delivery rate and the power consumption of wireless sensor networks. Nevertheless, leveraging this potential in collection applications brings significant challenges such as: collecting multiple samples of the metric, isolating the quality of the uplink, and returning the link quality information to the nodes that need it for taking routing decisions. This work addresses these challenges by proposing a novel exploration mechanism: WiseNE. The results show that WiseNE can provide the link quality information required by the Triangle Metric (a promising composite metric). Moreover, they confirm this metric's potential to combine the strengths of the signal-to-noise ratio, the link quality indication and the packet reception ratio, for predicting the quality of the links, both inside an office and in outdoor environments. The study concludes that WiseNE can enable novel composite metrics and proposes a series of next steps in order to significantly reduce its control overhead.