A three-tiered node scheduling scheme for sparse sensing in wireless sensor networks

In wireless sensor networks, when the sensing range is significantly higher than the transmission range, a very large amount of sensing redundancy is created. Sparse sensing indicates the case of selecting a small number of representative nodes to cover the sensor field while other nodes relay their data. In this paper we propose a location-free, three-tiered node scheduling protocol to address the sparse sensing problem. These layers are coverage, connectivity and coverage management layers. Coverage tier is responsible for covering the sensor field. Connectivity tier relays the collected data at the coverage tier back to the base station. The coverage management tier is responsible for implementing different coverage patterns.