Hierarchical data aggregation model and group management for wireless sensor networks

Disseminating data generated by sensors to sinks at different locations is one of essential functions in wireless sensor networks (WSNs). Recent research focuses much on how a source node forwards sensing data directly to the sink. In this paper, we propose a novel dissemination scheme that obtains five-layer data aggregation by introducing aggregator layers between sensors and sinks. The five aggregation layers from bottom to top are raw data aggregation, in-node data aggregation, group aggregation, aggregator aggregation and agent aggregation layers. In addition, the proposed network architecture for data delivery comprises two different transfer tiers. The lower tier is WSN and the upper tier is WLAN. The simulation results show that our scheme provides excellent throughput and reduces more power consumption for WSNs.