SS-trees: a cross-layer organizational approach for mesh-based wide-area wireless sensor networks

Because of their pervasiveness and autonomy in operation, mesh-based wireless sensor networks (WSNs) are an ideal candidate in offering sustained monitoring functions at reasonable cost over a wide area. However, devising an energy-efficient, cost-effective and reliable communication strategy for WSNs requires tight collaboration of all of the sublayers, which introduces new technical challenges in the areas of data, network and power management. This paper proposes a cross-layer sleep-scheduling-based organizational approach, called SS-Trees, that aims to harmonize the various engineering issues and provides a method of increasing monitoring coverage and operational lifetime of mesh-based WSNs engaged in wide-area surveillance applications. An integer linear programming (TLP) formulation based on Dijkstra´s algorithm and an iterative algorithmic approach are also suggested to determine the feasible SS-Tree structures for achieving such design goals