Energy efficient relaying using network coding for inter-cluster communication in sensor networks

In Wireless Sensor Network (WSN), due to limited battery energy, reduction of energy consumption is a challenging issue. In a typical clustered WSN, decisions can be taken locally at (cluster level) as well as globally at a central Sink. Local decision making requires information exchange among neighbor clusters. In this work, a network coding based opportunistic relaying strategy has been proposed in a clustered WSN to reduce the number of transmissions. Inter-cluster data dissemination has been analyzed using network coding with random link failures. The packets of different generations (from neighboring clusters) are exchanged with reduced number of transmissions. The proposed approach relies on the states of neighboring clusters which exchange information. It has been shown that the proposed scheme is more energy efficient than the traditional scheme. A detailed theoretical analysis has been performed to show the efficacy of the proposed approach.