Distributed Data Storage Systems for Data Survivability in Wireless Sensor Networks using Decentralized Erasure Codes

Achieving reliability in Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) is challenging due to the limited resources available. In this study, we investigate the design of data survivability schemes using decentralized storage systems in WSNs. We propose a data storage system design based on Decentralized Erasure Codes (DEC) that features a simple and decentralized construction of the target code. The proposed framework allows sensor nodes to cooperate to build an erasure code-based storage that can tolerate a given failure/erasure rate. Code construction and decoding can both be performed randomly allowing for a distributed operation with no prior setup or coordination between source nodes. Further, we present two approaches that utilize Random Linear Network Coding (RLNC) to enhance the proposed scheme in order to achieve energy efficiency. We present the theoretical basis of the schemes then validate and evaluate their performance through simulations. © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.