Reliable Transport for Sensor Networks

Abstract

We propose PSFQ (Pump Slowly, Fetch Quickly), a reliable transport protocol suitable for a new class of reliable data applications emerging in wireless sensor networks. For example, currently sensor networks tend to be application specific and are typically hard-wired to perform a specific task efficiently at low cost; however, there is an emerging need to be able to re-task or reprogram groups of sensors in wireless sensor networks on the fly (e.g., during disaster recovery). Due to the application-specific nature of sensor networks, it is difficult to design a single monolithic transport system that can be optimized for every application. PSFQ takes a different approach and supports a simple, robust and scalable transport that is customizable to meet the needs of different reliable data applications. To our knowledge there has been little work on the design of an efficient reliable transport protocol for wireless sensor networks, even though some techniques found in IP networks have some relevance to the solution space, such as, the body of work on reliable multicast. We present the design and implementation of PSFQ, and evaluate the protocol using the ns-2 simulator and an experimental wireless sensor testbed based on Berkeley motes. We show through simulation and experimentation that PSFQ can out perform existing related techniques (e.g., an idealized SRM scheme) and is highly responsive to the various error conditions experienced in wireless sensor networks, respectively.