On social behavior of wireless sensor node

Abstract

In this paper, we study a wireless sensor network (WSN) as a social network in which the embedded sensors are the main entities as opposed to human beings in a traditional social network. In wireless sensor networks, the nodes resemble individuals in a way that they communicate with their peers, sometimes selectively hiding some information, sometimes selectively exposing some other information, generating or forwarding information, sharing resources, joining and/or leaving the network. We argue in this paper that nodes of the sensor network have their own social life, and based on that assumption, we leverage ideas from social networks to show how the nodes can communicate in a “social networking” style to achieve significant efficiency. Specifically, we study the performance of WSN when some common rules of social network are applied in WSN and show significant reduction of overhead traffic leading to longer battery life of embedded nodes and better utilization of the network. Results from theoretical analysis have been verified through experimental study to justify the benefits of treating WSN as a social network.