Robust Aggregation in Sensor Networks.

Abstract

In the emerging area of sensor-based systems, a significant challenge is to develop scalable, fault-tolerant methods to extract useful information from the data the sensors collect. An approach to this data management problem is the use of sensor “database” systems, which allow users to perform aggregation queries on the readings of a sensor network. Due to power and range constraints, centralized approaches are generally impractical, so most systems use in-network aggregation to reduce network traffic. However, these aggregation strategies become bandwidthintensive when combined with the fault-tolerant, multi-path routing methods often used in these environments. In order to avoid this expense, we investigate the use of approximate in-network aggregation using small sketches and we survey robust and scalable methods for computing duplicate-sensitive aggregates.