The Improved Data Aggregation Scheme for Wireless Sensor Networks Based on Robust Chinese Remainder Theorem

In wireless sensor networks (WSNs), to improve sensing accuracy and coverage, a large number of sensor nodes are usually deployed in the monitoring area. The high density makes the same physical quantity sensed by adjacent sensor nodes the same or similar due to measurement errors, causing a lot of data redundancy and energy waste. In addition, reliability and non-plaintext transmission of the sensed data are also major concerns in WSNs. This paper proposes an improved data aggregation scheme to satisfy the requirements of energy efficiency, reliability, and non-plaintext transmission simultaneously. Based on robust Chinese Remainder Theorem (RCRT), the scheme not only compresses the data when it is sensed but also obtains the approximate measurement result even if any number of small measurement errors and an unrestricted measurement error occur in sensed data. Compared with the existing RCRT-based data aggregation scheme, our RCRT-based data aggregation scheme tolerates an unrestricted error at the expense of certain energy saving.