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We design a data preservation game called Data-VCG for base station-less sensor networks ( BSNs ). In the BSN, sensor nodes do not have connected paths to a base station thus, sensory data must be preserved inside the network before uploading opportunities arise. Data-VCG incorporates data values into the classic Vickrey-Clark-Groves (VCG) mechanism, a generic truthful mechanism for achieving a socially-optimal solution. It motivates all the sensor nodes (i.e., source, storage, and transition) to voluntarily participate in the data preservation process while achieving minimum data preservation cost. We give a detailed analysis of the performance guarantee of the Data-VCG and show that under certain conditions, its worst-case budget imbalance is at most n−3 times the efficiency gain, where n is the number of sensor nodes in the network. We conduct extensive simulations to validate our results in both grids and randomly generated BSNs under different network dynamics. 

We consider the problem of preserving a large amount of data generated inside base station-less sensor networks, when sensor nodes are controlled by different authorities and behave selfishly. We modify the VCG mechanism to guarantee that each node, including the source nodes with overflow data packets, will voluntarily participate in data preservation. The mechanism ensures that each node truthfully reports its private type and network achieves efficiency for all the preserved data packets. Extensive simulations are conducted to further validate our results.