Field Gathering Wireless Sensor Networks
Enrique J. Duarte‐Melo, Mingyan Liu · 2005
Field Gathering Wireless Sensor Networks are a class of sensor networks used to periodically collect data from a field in which the sensors are deployed. Sensing data are then transmitted to one or more data collectors or control centers, and collectively they form a snapshot of the field, e.g., temperature, pressure, etc. In this study we focus on two performance limits that arise in such networks. The first is network lifetime, which is a limit imposed by the energy constraint; the second is network throughput capacity, which is a limit imposed by the network architecture, communication and physical layer capabilities. The first determines how long the network may last (and how much data the network may deliver during its lifetime), while the second determines how fast data may be delivered. We present an in depth survey of recent advances, research and results in both performance measures. Special attention is paid to the network model used in each study and the effect of the assumptions of the model on the results. We finish by discussing future research and open research questions for field gathering wireless sensor networks.