Greedy Routing and Data Aggregation in Wireless Sensor Networks

In this work, we propose a new Greedy Forward algorithm to perform routing and data aggregation in WSNs. Differently from current Greedy Forward algorithms, our approach takes advantage of a sink node capable of long-range communication and uses the RSSI (Received Signal Strength Indicator) of exchanged packets to aggregate and forward data. Based on this, we propose the GRDA (Greedy Routing and Data Aggregation) algorithm with two different variations: GRDA Selection and GRDA Election. In the GRDA Selection, neighbors exchange packets with RSSI information and the next hop of the packet is then selected from a routing table at each step. In the GRDA Election, the next hop is dynamically elected at each step and no extra packets are required for the routing task. Our approach also takes advantage of RSSI values to create a time metric to guide in-network data aggregation. Our results clearly show significant energy savings and efficient data delivery achieved by the proposed algorithms in different scenarios with all the benefits of a Greedy Forward algorithm.