Prolonging wireless sensor network lifetime in stealth mode through intelligent data compression

Abstract

In certain surveillance applications it is imperative that the deployed Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) is not detected by the adversaries before the intruding party is detected by the WSN (i.e., the WSN is in the stealth mode of operation). Limiting the transmission ranges of sensor nodes is an option to mitigate the compromising privacy of the WSN (i.e., data communication within the WSN is not detected from far away). However, using all sensor nodes with minimal energy transmission level has devastating effects on the network lifetime because some nodes acting as relays are heavily burdened by conveying the data flowing from an unproportionately high number of sensor nodes. Such an approach will lead to the premature death of certain subset of sensor nodes. Alternatively, sensor nodes' transmission ranges can be limited as a function of their distance to the network border. Even under this policy a subset of the nodes become hotspots. On the other hand, nodes close the border cannot dissipate their energies completely because they cannot relay much data due the limits imposed on their transmission ranges. One possible solution to mitigate the uneven energy dissipation characteristic is to let the nodes that cannot dissipate their energies on communications reduce the amount of data they generate through computation so that the relay nodes convey less data. In this study we create a novel Linear Programming (LP) framework to model the energy cost of contextual privacy and multi-level data compression in WSNs.

Optimal data compression for lifetime maximization in wireless sensor networks operating in stealth mode

“…We employ five data compression strategies which are No Compression (NC) strategy, Always Compression (AC) strategy, Optimal Compression (OC), Optimal Single Level Compression (OSLC), and Limited Compression (LC). The first of these strategies are proposed and analyzed in [5,6]. However, these models do not account for some of the inherent limitations of WSNs.…”

“…Nevertheless, the main contribution of this study is the consideration of more practical aspects of data compression in WSNs providing contextual privacy against adversaries. More precisely stated, this paper extends the concept introduced in [5] by investigating the effects of Optimal Single Level Compression (OSLC) and Limited Compression (LC) strategies through Mixed Integer Programming (MIP) models. Furthermore, we explore the impact of node density and limited transmission range due to contextual privacy scenarios.…”

“…This paper is a substantially improved and expanded version of an earlier conference paper [5], where we investigated the effects of several data compression strategies on WSN lifetime while providing stealth mode of operation through an LP framework. In fact, the LP framework in [5] is obtained by integrating the LP frameworks presented in [3] and [6].…”

“…In fact, the LP framework in [5] is obtained by integrating the LP frameworks presented in [3] and [6]. Nevertheless, the main contribution of this study is the consideration of more practical aspects of data compression in WSNs providing contextual privacy against adversaries.…”