Active caching: a transmission method to guarantee desired communication reliability in wireless sensor networks

Due to the high packet loss rate during multi-hop transmissions in wireless sensor networks, more reliable end-to-end data transmission is desirable. Because wireless sensor network applications require various levels of communication reliability (CR), the end-to-end data transmission should satisfy the desired CR of the applications. In this letter, we propose a flexible loss recovery mechanism for sensor network applications with various CRs. The proposed scheme caches data packets at intermediate nodes over routing paths computed by CR to retransmit lost packets during multi-hop transmissions. Because the proposed scheme presents a tradeoff between end-to-end delays and memory requirements dependent on CR, it can be used flexibly in various sensor network applications.