Detection and Recovery for Intermittent Disconnections in Tmote Sky Sensor Networks

Abstract

Tmote Sky sensors provide programmable and adjustable output power for transmission. Users can control needed transmission power for each sensor. However, the transmission range for a fixed power changes inconsistently due to the interferences, such as obstacles and other wireless signals. Therefore, the communication between sensors is disconnected sometimes. To solve the problem, this paper demonstrates the implementation of three recovery schemes. As Tmote Sky sensors detect communication disconnection, sensors will increase their transmission power for a certain of time, ask backup nodes for help, or broadcast control messages for ooperation. Practical experimental results reveal the amount of lost packets can be reduced with a little additional energy.