Management of large-scale wireless sensor networks utilizing multi-parent recursive area hierarchies

Autonomously configuring and self-healing a large-scale wireless sensor network requires a light-weight maintenance protocol that is scalable. Further, in a battery powered wireless sensor network duty-cycling a node´s radio can reduce the power consumption of a device and extend the lifetime of a network. With duty-cycled nodes the power consumption of a node´s radio depends on the amount of communication it must perform and by reducing the communication the power consumption can also be reduced. Multi-parent hierarchies can be used to reduce the communication cost when constructing a recursive area clustering hierarchy when compared to single-parent solutions that utilize inefficient communication methods such as flooding and information propagation via single-hop broadcasts. The multi-parent hierarchies remain scalable and provide a level of redundancy for the hierarchy.