Poster Abstract: If You Have Time, Save Energy with Pull

Abstract: We analyze push and pull for data collection in wireless sensor networks. Most applications to date use the traditional push approach, where nodes transmit sensed data immedi- ately to the sink. Using a pull approach, nodes store the data in their local flash memory, and only engage in commu- nication during dedicated collection phases. We show how one can transform an existing push-based collection protocol into a pull-based one, and compare the power consumption of both approaches on a 35-node testbed. Our results show that substantial energy gains are possible with pull, provided that the application can tolerate a long latency.