An Objective based Classification of Aggregation Techniques for Wireless Sensor Networks

Abstract.This paper presents a comprehensive survey of aggregation techniques that can be used in distributed manner to improve lifetime and energy conservation of wireless sensor networks. These techniques are designed to achieve some improvement objective e.g. reducing data size, minimizing transmission energy, enhancing accuracy etc. Main contribution of this work is proposal of a novel classification of such techniques based on the type of improvement they offer when applied to WSNs. We first review the meaning of term aggregation and then associate it with the proposed classes. Each class is presented with a brief literature review of example applications in WSN