Distributed Convergecast Scheduling for Reduced Interference in Wireless Sensor and Actuator Networks

Emerging wireless sensor and actuator network (WSAN) technology has the potential to enable semi-autonomous air-flow control to improve the aerodynamic performance of aircraft. In this paper, a WSAN topology comprising of multiple linear sensor clusters terminated by actuators is proposed for active flow control. Two interference aware convergecast scheduling strategies are presented and analyzed, with the objective of jointly minimizing latency and energy consumption. The proposed schemes are required to coordinate local convergecast communications in each cluster, on the one hand, and to arbitrate between mutually interfering nodes of different clusters contending for the wireless channel, on the other. Initial results show that a 19s and 11s convergecast delay moderate to high energy consumption can be achieved.