Asymmetric neighbor discovery protocol for wireless sensor networks using block design

A number of neighbor discovery protocols (NDPs) based on block designs have been proposed for the application of sensor networks. However, most of these block designs-based NDPs in literature cannot support asymmetric duty cycles, whereas internet of things (IoT) applications prefer to support both symmetric and asymmetric duty operations. In order to address the lack of supporting asymmetric duty operations of block designs-based NDPs, we propose a new scheme called the Exclusive OR NDP, which constructs a new discovery schedule by combining two block designs with different duty cycles. The Exclusive OR NDP can support both symmetric and asymmetric duty cycles while preserving the performance of block designs-based NDPs. In this paper, we also present the results of our experimental study where we measure the effectiveness of the proposed approach by comparing the performance of the Exclusive OR NDP with other well-known NDPs.