Abstract As the use of wireless sensor networks increases, the need for efficient and\nreliable broadcasting algorithms grows. Ideally, a broadcasting algorithm should have\nthe ability to quickly disseminate data, while keeping the number of transmissions low.\nIn this paper, we analyze the popular Trickle algorithm, which has been proposed as\na suitable communication protocol for code maintenance and propagation in wireless\nsensor networks. We show that the broadcasting process of a network using Trickle\ncan be modeled by a Markov chain and that this chain falls under a class of Markov\nchains, closely related to residual lifetime distributions. It is then shown that this class\nof Markov chains admits a stationary distribution of a special form. These results\nare used to analyze the Trickle algorithm and its message count. Our results prove\nconjectures made in the literature concerning the effect of a listen-only period. Besides\nproviding a mathematical analysis of the algorithm, we propose a generalized version\nof Trickle, with an additional parameter defining the length of a listen-only period.
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