PANEL: Position-based Aggregator Node Election in Wireless Sensor Networks

We introduce PANEL a position-based aggregator node election protocol for wireless sensor networks. The novelty of PANEL with respect to other aggregator node election protocols is that it supports asynchronous sensor network applications where the sensor readings are fetched by the base stations after some delay. In particular, the motivation for the design of PANEL was to support reliable and persistent data storage applications, such as TinyPEDS; see the study by Girao et al. (2007). PANEL ensures load balancing, and it supports intra and intercluster routing allowing sensor-to-aggregator, aggregator-to-aggregator, base station-to-aggregator, and aggregator to-base station communications. We also compare PANEL with HEED; see the study by Younis and Fahmy (2004) in the simulation environment provided by TOSSIM, and show that, on one hand, PANEL creates more cohesive clusters than HEED, and, on the other hand, that PANEL is more energy efficient than HEED.