A pre-emptive multiple queue based congestion control for different traffic classes in WSN

Traffic in wireless sensor networks (WSN) exhibits a many-to-one pattern in which multiple source nodes send sensing data to a single sink node. Since bandwidth, processor and memory are highly constrained in WSN, packet loss is common when a great deal of traffic rushes to sink. The system must provide differentiated service to individual traffic classes. In this paper, a pre-emptive multiple queue based congestion control mechanism is proposed. To detect congestion and to provide QoS for high priority traffic multiple buffers are used. Using this mechanism, high system utilization, reduced packet waiting time, and reduced packet drop probability are achieved. An analytical model is developed to predict the performance of the proposed mechanism by calculating the performance measures including system throughput, drop probability of packets, and mean queue length. By comparing analytical and simulation results the effectiveness and accuracy of the model is demonstrated. Markovian process is used to develop the analytical model and ns-2 for evaluating the performance of the mechanism.