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The emergence of a networking primitive in wireless sensor networks

Published: 01 July 2008 Publication History

Abstract

The wireless sensor network community approached networking abstractions as an open question, allowing answers to emerge with time and experience. The Trickle algorithm has become a basic mechanism used in numerous protocols and systems. Trickle brings nodes to eventual consistency quickly and efficiently while remaining remarkably robust to variations in network density, topology, and dynamics. Instead of flooding a network with packets, Trickle uses a "polite gossip" policy to control send rates so each node hears just enough packets to stay consistent. This simple mechanism enables Trickle to scale to 1000-fold changes in network density, reach consistency in seconds, and require only a few bytes of state yet impose a maintenance cost of a few sends an hour. Originally designed for disseminating new code, experience has shown Trickle to have much broader applicability, including route maintenance and neighbor discovery. This paper provides an overview of the research challenges wireless sensor networks face, describes the Trickle algorithm, and outlines several ways it is used today.

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Bayard Kohlhepp

According to the authors, wireless embedded networks are limited by four fundamental constraints: low power, small memory, unattended operation, and lossy network behavior. Historically, network protocol designers had to choose between two extremes: efficiency or robust behavior. Over the past several decades, however, the Trickle algorithm has evolved to satisfy both requirements via a "polite, density-aware, local retransmission" scheme. Originally developed to spread new code across a network of sensors, Trickle is finding its way into connectivity discovery, data dissemination, and route maintenance applications. This paper is eight pages long, including an extensive two-page bibliography that goes all the way back to 1987. It's an easy read, and the bibliography is a great source for further reading or study. Online Computing Reviews Service

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Published In

cover image Communications of the ACM
Communications of the ACM  Volume 51, Issue 7
Web science
July 2008
100 pages
ISSN:0001-0782
EISSN:1557-7317
DOI:10.1145/1364782
Issue’s Table of Contents
Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

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Publication History

Published: 01 July 2008
Published in CACM Volume 51, Issue 7

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