Mobile Sampling of Sensor Field Data Using Controlled Broadcast

Mobile objects can be used to gather samples from a sensor field. Civilian vehicles or even human beings equipped with proper wireless communication devices can be used as mobile sinks that retrieve sensor-data from sampling points within a large sensor field. A key challenge is how to gather the sensor data in a manner that is energy efficient with respect to the sensor nodes that serve as sources of the sensor data. In this paper, an algorithmic technique called Band-based Directional Broadcast is introduced to control the direction of broadcasts that originate from sensor nodes. The goal is to direct each broadcast of sensor data toward the mobile sink, thus reducing costly forwarding of sensor data packets. The technique is studied by simulations that consider energy consumption and data deliverability.