Cluster-Based Fast Broadcast in Duty-Cycled Wireless Sensor Networks

This paper proposes a cluster-based broadcast protocol to disseminate delay-sensitive information throughout a wireless sensor network (WSN). The protocol considers the use of duty-cycling at the MAC layer, which is essential to reduce energy dissipation. LEACH´s energy-efficiency approach is used for cluster construction. The proposed protocol adds new common static and dynamic broadcast periods to support and accelerate broadcasting. The dynamic periods are scheduled following the past arrivals of messages, and using a Markov-chain model. To our knowledge, this work is the first that proposes the use of clustering to reduce broadcast latency. The clustering mechanism allows for simultaneous local broadcasts at several clusters in the WSN, and it also ensures scalability with the increase of the network size. The protocol has been simulated, numerically analyzed, and compared with LEACH. The results show clear improvement over LEACH with regard to the latency.