Energy-efficient code dissemination using minimal virtual backbone in sensor networks

Code Dissemination of a sensor network is useful for uploading a new code or for changing the functionality of the existing code. Code Dissemination may be done multiple times during a node's lifetime and therefore a node has to remain receptive to future code updates. The majority of code dissemination mechanisms are based on Deluge. Deluge generates broadcast storm to distribute a new code, which causes the serious redundancy, the contention and the message collision. In this paper, we propose an energy-efficient code dissemination method to reduce the number of broadcasting packets over the minimal virtual backbone using RSSI (Received Signal Strength Indicator) values. We evaluated the performance of our method via simulations using QualNet, a kind of simulation tools. Results show that in comparison to Deluge and CORD, our proposed method significantly reduces the number of transmitted messages and the energy consumption for the code dissemination.