Energy-Efficient Distributed Topology Control Algorithm for Low-Power IoT Communication Networks

Topology control is one of the significant research topics in traditional wireless networks. The primary purpose of topology control ensures the connectivity of wireless nodes participated in the network. Low-power Internet of Things communication networks look like wireless network environments in which the main communication devices are wireless devices with limited energy like battery. In this paper, we propose a distributed topology control algorithm by merging the combinatorial block design from a design theory with the multiples of 2. The proposed technique especially focuses on asynchronous and asymmetric neighbor discovery. The concept of block design is used to generate the neighbor discovery schedule when a target duty cycle is given. In addition, the multiples of 2 are applied to overcome the challenge of the block design and support asymmetric operation. We analyze the worst case discovery latency and energy consumption numerically by calculating the total number of slots and wake-up slots based on the given duty cycle. It shows that our proposed method has the smallest total number of slots and wake-up slots among existing representative neighbor discovery protocols. The numerical analysis represents the proposed technique find neighbors quickly with minimum battery power compared with other protocols for distributed topology control. For future research direction, we could perform a simulation study or real experiment to investigate the best parameter for choosing the multiple of a certain number.