Continuous Contour Mapping in Sensor Networks

A contour map is a useful data representation schema that can be used for monitoring tasks involving wireless sensor networks . This paper reports the development of an algorithm (CCM) for continuous contour mapping that is more energy-efficient than straightforward spatial or temporal suppression algorithms. A subset of contour nodes is chosen to report to the sink, such that no significant contour information is lost. Experiments are reported showing that, depending on node density, our algorithm provides an average reduction of 60% on the total amount of report data, compared to the baseline spatial suppression algorithm. This reduction is achieved while at the same time maintaining accuracy with respect to the monitored source.