Commonly, routing in sensor networks is limited to longterm stable links. Unstable links, although often promising to be of large routing progress, are not considered for packet forwarding as link estimators typically cannot handle their dynamics.

In this paper we introduce short-term link estimation to capture link dynamics at a high resolution in time and to identify when these render a link temporarily reliable or unreliable. We identify such dynamics based on packet overhearing, predict short-term availability and unavailability, and adapt neighbor tables, thereby enlarging the set of links useable by any routing algorithm. Additionally, we show that short-term link estimation integrates seamlessly into today’s sensor network link estimators and routing protocols.