An optimised resource aware approach to information collection in ad hoc networks

In ad hoc networks there is a need for all-to-one protocols that allow for information collection or “sensing” of the state of an ad hoc network and the nodes that comprise it. Such protocols may be used for service discovery, auto-configuration, network management, topology discovery or reliable flooding. There is a parallel between this type of sensing in ad hoc networks and that of sensor networks. However, ad hoc networks and sensor networks differ in their application, construction, characteristics and constraints. The main priority of sensor networks is for the flow of data from sensors back to a sink, but in an ad hoc network this may be of secondary importance. Hence, protocols suitable to sensor networks are not necessarily suitable to ad hoc networks and vice versa. We propose, Resource Aware Information Collection (RAIC), a distributed two phased resource aware approach to information collection in ad hoc networks. RAIC utilises a resource aware optimised flooding mechanism to both disseminate requests and initialise a backbone of resource suitable nodes responsible for relaying replies back to the node collecting information. RAIC in the process of collecting information from all nodes in an ad hoc network is shown to consume less energy and introduce less overhead compared with Directed Diffusion and a brute force approach. Importantly, over multiple successive queries (in an energy constrained environment), the use of resource awareness allows for the load of relaying to be distributed to those nodes most suitable, thereby extending the lifetime of the network.