Abstract

Energy-efficient query dissemination plays an important role for the lifetime of sensor networks. In this work, we consider probabilistic flooding for query dissemination and develop an analytical framework which enables the base station to predict the energy consumed and the nodes reached according to the rebroadcast probability. Furthermore, we devise a topology discovery protocol that collects the structural information required for the framework. Our analysis shows that the energy savings exceed the energy spent to obtain the required information after a small number of query disseminations in realistic settings. We verified our results both with simulations and experiments using the SUN Spot nodes.