McTorrent: Using multiple communication channels for efficient bulk data dissemination in wireless sensor networks

This paper presents McTorrent, a reliable bulk data dissemination protocol for sensor networks. The protocol is designed to take advantage of multiple radio channels to reduce packet collisions and improve the latency of large object dissemination. We evaluated the performance of McTorrent via detailed simulations and experiments based upon an implementation on the TinyOS platform. Our results show that in comparison to Deluge, the de facto network reprogramming protocol for TinyOS, McTorrent significantly reduces the number of packet transmissions and the amount of time required to propagate a large data object through a sensor network.