COMMUNICATION METHOD AND APPARATUS USING VIRTUAL SINK NODE IN WIRELESS SENSOR NETWORK

• US 20090207783A1
• Filed: 02/13/2009
• Published: 08/20/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 02/14/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Korea University, Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Korea University, Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Inventors: Jung, Jae Kyun, Choi, Hyo Hyun, Kim, Sun Gi, Choi, Lynn
• Granted Patent: US 8,856,227 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/328
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 40/026 Route selection considering the moving speed of individual devices
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 40/20 based on geographic position or location
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/70 in wireless communication networks

Abstract

A communication method and apparatus using a virtual sink node in a wireless sensor network, in which location information about a destination node is acquired by a source node. If the location of the destination node is out of a transmission range of the source node, data including the location information about the destination node are transmitted from the source node to one of nodes adjacent to the source node, where the one node is typically closest to the destination node. The data are transmitted from the one node to another one of nodes adjacent to the one node, where another node is closest to the destination node, until the destination node is located within a transmission range of the one node. If the destination node is located within the transmission range of the one node, the data are transmitted from the one node to the destination node.

Claims

1. A communication method in a sensor network comprising:

(a) acquiring, by a source node, location information about a destination node;

(b) transmitting, by the source node, data including the location information about the destination node, wherein if the location of the destination node is outside of a transmission range of the source node, the data including the location information about the destination node transmitted from the source node to a first node of nodes adjacent to the source node, where the first node is closest to the destination node;

(c) transmitting the data from the first node to a second node adjacent to the first node, where the second node is closest to the destination node, until the destination node is located within a transmission range of the first node; and

(d) transmitting, if the destination node is located within the transmission range of the one node, the data from the first node to the destination node.

2. The communication method of claim 1, further comprising:

(d) transmitting the data, if a hole occurs in a transmission route between the source node and destination node, through a previously stored history node by the source node and a node including the first node.

3. The communication method of claim 2, wherein the history node is located within the transmission route through which the destination node transmits location information about the destination to the source node.

4. The communication method of claim 2, further comprising:

transmitting a routing request message, if the data are missed due to movement of one or more history nodes from a node having detected the missed data to the destination node;

receiving a routing response message from the destination node in response to the routing request message; and

restoring the transmission route.

5. The communication method of claim 1, wherein the adjacent nodes are located within the transmission range of the source node.

6. The communication method of claim 1, wherein:

the destination node comprises a virtual sink node if the source node comprises a sensor node.

7. The communication method of claim 1, wherein:

the destination node comprises a sink node if the source node comprises a virtual sink node.

8. The communication method of claim 1, wherein the location information is received through a Global Positioning System (GPS) satellite.

9. The communication method of claim 1, further comprising:

storing, by all nodes including the source node and the adjacent nodes, location information about nodes adjacent to all respective nodes.

10. The communication method of claim 9, wherein storing location information comprises:

transmitting, by only a moving node from among all the nodes, location information of the moving node to adjacent nodes within its transmission range of the moving node; and

transmitting location information to a new adjacent node, if a node having not moved receives location information about an adjacent node that is newly located within a transmission range of not having moved, by the node having not moved.

14. The communication method of claim 1, wherein, if the selected virtual sink node has less energy than a preset critical value, selecting another sensor node from among the plurality of sensor nodeshaving an energy amount is greater than the preset critical value.

11. A communication method in a sensor network including a plurality of sensor nodes and a sink node, the communication method comprising:

selecting, by the sink node, a first sensor node from among the plurality of sensor nodes for designation as a virtual sink node;

acquiring, by the virtual sink node, location information about the sink node;

transmitting location information about the virtual sink node from the virtual sink node to a second sensor node; and

transmitting data sensed by the second sensor node to the sink node through the virtual sink node.

12. The communication method of claim 11, wherein transmitting data comprises:

repeatedly transmitting data, which includes location information about the virtual sink node, to a third sensor node from the plurality of sensor nodes being closest to the virtual sink node, said third sensor node being one of the plurality of sensor nodes between the second sensor node and the virtual sink node and from the adjacent nodes of the second sensor node, until the data from the second sensor node arrives at the virtual sink node; and

repeatedly transmitting data, which includes location information about the sink node, to a fourth sensor node being closest to the sink node, said fourth sensor being one of the nodes between the virtual sink node and the sink node and from adjacent nodes of the virtual sink node, until the data from the virtual sink node arrives at the sink node.

13. The communication method of claim 11, wherein selecting said first node from among the plurality of sensor nodes comprises selecting said first node to be designated as the virtual sink node in which said first node has an amount of energy that is greater than a preset critical value.

15. The communication method of claim 11, wherein acquiring location information is performed as the virtual sink node receives location information about the sink node by a unicast method from the sink node.

16. The communication method of claim 11, wherein transmitting location information comprises:

transmitting location information about the virtual sink node by a broadcast method; and

transmitting the broadcast location information to the sensor node by flooding.

17. A communication apparatus for a sensor network comprising:

a plurality of sensor nodes including a first sensor node for sensing particular data and transmitting the sensed data to other nodes; and

a sink node for selecting at least a second sensor node from the plurality of sensor nodes to be designated as a virtual sink node, and for the sink node to receive the data through the virtual sink node.

18. The communication apparatus of claim 17, wherein the first sensor node continues to transmit the data, which includes location information about the virtual sink node, to a third sensor node from among nodes adjacent to the first sensor node, said third sensor node being closest to the virtual sink node, until the data arrives at the virtual sink node.

19. The communication apparatus of claim 18, wherein the virtual sink node continues to transmit the data, which includes location information about the sink node, to a particular sensor node from among nodes adjacent to the virtual sink node, which is closest to the sink node, until the data arrives at the sink node.

20. The communication apparatus of claim 19, wherein the particular sensor node and the virtual sink node transmit the data through a previously stored history node when a hole in a transmission route occurs during the data transmission.

21. The communication apparatus of claim 20, wherein, if the data are missed as the history node is moved, the particular sensor node and the virtual sink node transmits a routing request message to a destination node and receives a routing request response message from the destination node to store a routing path.

22. The communication apparatus of claim 17, wherein the particular sensor node transmits its own location information to nodes adjacent the particular sensor node within its transmission range only while it is moving.

23. The communication apparatus of claim 22, wherein, if the particular sensor node receives location information about an adjacent node in which the adjacent sensor node newly moves in its transmission range while the particular sensor node does not move, the particular sensor node transmits its location information to the new adjacent node.

24. The communication apparatus of claim 17, wherein the sink node selects nodes from among the plurality of sensor nodes for designation as the virtual sink node, in which the selected sensor node includes an amount of energy that is equal to or greater than a preset critical value.

25. The communication apparatus of claim 24, wherein, if the energy of the virtual sink node is less than a preset critical value, the sink node newly selects another sensor node from among the sensor nodes to be designated as the virtual sink node, in which the selected sensor nodes have an amount of energy that is equal to or greater than a preset critical value.

26. The communication apparatus of claim 17, wherein the virtual sink node does not move immediately after it is selected as a virtual sink node.

27. The communication apparatus of claim 17, wherein the sensor node and the sink node comprise a GPS receiver and receive their location information through the GPS receiver.