Distributed algorithms in wireless sensor networks: An approach for applying binary consensus in a real testbed

Abstract

In this work, we realize the binary consensus algorithm for use in wireless sensor networks. Binary consensus is used to allow a collection of distributed entities to reach consensus regarding the answer to a binary question and the final decision is based on the majority opinion. Binary consensus can play a basic role in increasing the accuracy of detecting event occurrence. Existing work on the binary consensus algorithm focuses on simulation of the algorithm in a purely theoretical sense. We fill the gap between the theoretical work and real hardware implementation by modifying the algorithm to function in wireless sensor networks. This is achieved by adding a method for nodes to determine who to communicate with as well as adding a heuristic for nodes to know when the algorithm has completed. Our implementation is asynchronous and based on random communication. In this work, we expand our previous implementation to test it on 139 hardware testbed. Moreover, we are able to minimize the convergence time achieving ultimate results. Our implementation show successful results and all the motes are able to converge to the expected value in very short time.