Location-free fault repair in hybrid sensor networks

Abstract

In this paper, we consider the sensor replacement problem in hybrid wireless sensor networks composed of mobile and static sensors. Mobility equipped mobile sensors are utilized to recover or to improve the overall coverage and connectivity. Unlike existing solution making assumptions of precise location information, our fault repair solution does not assume the localization information is available. Faulty sensors try to find available redundant sensors and ask for replacements. Mobile sensor nodes make use of simple geometric operation to locate and replace dying nodes to recover or increase the existing coverage and connectivity. Simulation results show that our proposed sensor replacement protocol successfully manages fault repair in absence of location information and is energy efficient.