Efficient Sensor Network Reprogramming through Compression of Executable Modules

Software in deployed sensor networks needs to be updated to introduce new functionality or to fix bugs. Reducing dissemination time is important because the dissemination disturbs the regular operation of the network. We present a method for reducing the dissemination time and energy consumption based on compression of native code modules. Code compression reduces the size of the software update, but the decompression on the sensor nodes requires processing time and energy. We quantify these trade-offs for seven different compression algorithms. Our results show that GZIP has the most favorable trade-offs, saving on average 67% of the dissemination time and 69% of the energy in a multi-hop wireless sensor network.