Rateless Codes for Data Dissemination in Wireless Sensor Networks - 09/15/2006

Andrew Hagedorn

Efficient data dissemination is intrinsic to a wide variety of wireless sensor networks (WSNs) applications, such as database services, over-the-air programming, and network management. However, the broadcast nature of the channel in WSNs impacts the performance of data dissemination, especially at high network density. Rateless codes provide a means of addressing channel contention, while at the same time minimizing control messages. This talk will outline several rateless coding techniques, including LT Codes and random linear codes, and discuss the effect of random linear codes on the performance of data dissemination in WSNs.

In this talk I will also discuss a potential location detection system in sensor networks based on a generalization of identifying codes and their relation to the covering integer problem.