Efficient one-to-many broadcasting for resource-constrained wireless networks

Efficient one-to-many broadcasting is an essential function in dense or large-scale wireless systems managed by a sink or gateway. This paper describes HASTE, a novel heuristic designed for broadcast tree production. Minimizing maximum hop count reduces worst case broadcast latency, while maximizing the number of leaf nodes reduces the number of transmitted messages. The algorithm is designed to be used with current wireless routing protocols that have the capability to push tree configurations into the network. We evaluated HASTE against an approximation algorithm and found that it consistently produces trees with lower latencies and fewer transmissions. HASTE was also evaluated using a packet simulator and a novel approach using Bloom filters was proposed to include tree configuration information in packets. The results show that the HASTE generated spanning tree can be efficiently pushed into the network achieving high packet delivery rates with minimal overhead in packet transmissions.