Hybrid Data Dissemination Approach for Sensor Network with Multiple Cooperative Sinks

In this paper, we introduce a hybrid scalable approach for data-gathering and dissemination in sensor networks. The approach maintains the desirable on-demand communication feature of the pull technique by synchronizing its underling push and pull components. At the same time, scalability is achieved by allowing sinks to cooperatively embed virtual network sectorizing. The mechanism has two phases. First, virtual boards are constructed to form virtual closed sectors where queries are announced. Second, nodes located outside these boards initiate local bridges to carry their active events to the first board they encounter. Bridges are only created when boards are constructed. We validate our proposed solution with a simple analytical model and extensive software simulation. The initial investigation shows that our integrated protocol promises an efficient and scalable paradigm for data-gathering and dissemination in sensor networks that reduces the communication cost and leads to load balancing.