Efficient Slot Assignment for the Many-to-One Routing Pattern in Sensor Networks

In this paper an efficient TDMA slot assignment for the many-to-one routing pattern in wireless sensor networks is presented and analyzed. This assignment scheme is based on a simple to implement heuristic, named Spatial Path-based Reuse (SPR). By considering several metrics, the superiority of this heuristic with respect to energy consumption and runtime compared to proposals found in the literature is demonstrated. There is a substantial interest in the design of the many-to-one routing pattern in sensor networks. This pattern naturally arises in situations, where all nodes need to report their sensor readings to a central location called sink. In many cases a reliable implementation of this pattern is required, i.e., all readings must reach the sink.