Auto-configuration of Shared Network-layer Address in Cluster-based Wireless Sensor Network

Network-layer address is used to identify sensor nodes in wireless sensor networks (WSNs). Since a WSN might be composed of a huge number of sensor nodes, it is difficult to assign an address to each node manually. In this paper we propose a novel auto-configuration algorithm ACSA, which assigns an address to a geographical area instead of an individual sensor node. This addressing scheme is based on the fact that there is no need to exchange packets between arbitrary nodes pair. By reducing the address size, ACSA is more energy-efficient and scalable. This new address assignment scheme is also adaptive to network change. Experiments using NS-2 have shown that ACSA achieves better performance and energy efficiency in WSNs.