Opportunistic Data Aggregation in Low-Duty-Cycle Wireless Sensor Networks with Unreliable Links

This paper proposes an opportunistic data aggregation algorithm to support the data collection in low-duty-cycle Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) with unreliable links. In this algorithm, each sensor selectively waits for some certain time to maximize the number of packets that it can aggregate from its downstream nodes, then transmits the aggregated result to an adaptively selected upstream node following an optimal forwarding sequence. Simulation results show that the algorithm can significantly increase the data aggregation efficiency, and reduce energy consumption and message overhead.