A tessellation-based localized chain construction scheme for chain-oriented sensor networks

Chain oriented logical topologies offer significantenergy-efficiency, especially for large-scaled wireless sensor networks.Essentially, the effectiveness of this topology largelydepends on how the chains are constructed and organized.Thus, chain construction can correctly be presumed as the mainchallenge for a chain-oriented logical topology. In this paper,we propose a tessellation based chain construction scheme forchain-oriented sensor networks. This scheme creates multiplechains, each of which is confined in a small area, rather thanspanning large areas. The main idea of this scheme is todivide the target field, using the concept of Voronoi diagram,into a number of small areas, and then construct chains ineach of those areas. Confining chains in bounded areas resultslower interference, which in turns saves energy and time bylimiting retransmissions caused by the interference problems. Anumber of protocols are incorporated in this scheme, such as adistributed protocol for constructing Voronoi diagram, Voronoidiagram management protocol, chain construction protocol, andleader selection protocol. Extensive simulation experiments wereperformed on this scheme. Simulation results show that proposedscheme saves more energy, lengthens lifetime of the network, andreduces data collection latency.