Robust Routing of Data in Wireless Networks

Abstract

A wireless network (1) comprises a base station (2) and sensor nodes (3). The base station (2) comprises a network interface (10), an application interface (11), topology control functions (12) a timer (13), and a buffer (14). Each sensor node (3) comprises a network interface (20), route control functions (21), processing functions (22), sensors (23), flood mechanism programs (24), tree mechanism programs (25), and data forwarding programs (26). The network operates by establishing a conventional routing tree from the sink node that is used when the network is stable. But when a sending node detects a node or link failure it dynamically switches to sending its data packets using a flooding mechanism, rather than waiting for the routing tree to be reestablished. This reduces the latency for data delivery. Also, when flooding the data packets, it allows the packets to be flooded to nodes that are an equal number of hops from the sink node as the send node is from the sink node. This approach is suitable in situations where an obstacle causes the path between the sending node and the sink to be blocked, thus requiring a strategy in which packets are routed by less direct means. It increases the probability of delivery.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.