Cluster-level based link redundancy with network coding in duty cycled relay wireless sensor networks

Reliability and efficiency become more important in data transmission application in wireless sensor networks (WSNs). Many studies have been proposed to improve the network reliability and energy efficiency, but most of them were complicated to implement in energy-limited WSNs. This paper is dedicated to research a high performance protocol named NCCM-DC, which is a Network Coding based Cluster-level Multipath protocol in Duty-Cycled WSNs. While meeting the transmission reliability, NCCM-DC can also balance the workload and make full use of energy. In NCCM-DC protocol, the nodes are organized into a cluster and the cluster is used as a basic unit to construct the multipath. Thus, the traffic load can be dispersed to more nodes evenly and a topological structure for cooperative transmission can be formed. Meanwhile, with the advantage of path redundancy and network coding, NCCM-DC improves the transmission reliability. In order to improve the energy efficiency, we focus on the dormancy mechanism and collaborative state transition algorithm. As the low cost in routing discovery phase and the random operations of coding coefficient in Galois Field, NCCM-DC is applicable to energy-limited WSNs. Theoretical analysis and experimental simulation confirms that NCCM-DC can meet the requirements of network reliability and energy efficiency.