A Multi-Agent Prediction Method for Data Sampling and Transmission Reduction in Internet of Things Sensor Networks

Sensor networks can provide valuable real-time data for various IoT applications. However, the amount of sensed and transmitted data should be kept at a low level due to the limitations imposed by network bandwidth, data storage, processing capabilities, and finite energy resources. In this paper, a new method is introduced that uses the predicted intervals of possible sensor readings to efficiently suppress unnecessary transmissions and decrease the amount of data samples collected by a sensor node. In the proposed method, the intervals of possible sensor readings are determined with a multi-agent system, where each agent independently explores a historical dataset and evaluates the similarity between past and current sensor readings to make predictions. Based on the predicted intervals, it is determined whether the real sensed data can be useful for a given IoT application and when the next data sample should be transmitted. The prediction algorithm is executed by the IoT gateway or in the cloud. The presented method is applicable to IoT sensor networks that utilize low-end devices with limited processing power, memory, and energy resources. During the experiments, the advantages of the introduced method were demonstrated by considering the criteria of prediction interval width, coverage probability, and transmission reduction. The experimental results confirm that the introduced method improves the accuracy of prediction intervals and achieves a higher rate of transmission reduction compared with state-of-the-art prediction methods.