Connectivity Reestablishment in Self-Organizing Sensor Networks with Dumb Nodes

Abstract

In this work, we propose a scheme, named CoRAD, for the reestablishment of lost connectivity using sensor nodes with adjustable communication range in stationary wireless sensor networks (WSNs), when “dumb” behavior occurs some of the nodes. Due to the occurrence of such behavior, there may be temporary loss of connectivity between among the nodes. Such a phenomenon is different from the commonly known node isolation problem in stationary WSNs. The mere activation of intermediate sleep nodes cannot guarantee reestablishment of connectivity, because there may not exist neighbor nodes of the isolated nodes. On the contrary, the increase in communication range of a single sensor node may make it die quickly. Including this, a sensor node has maximum limit of increase in communication range that may not be sufficient to reestablish connectivity. Therefore, considering all these factors for self-organization of the network and isolated node re-connection, we propose a price-based scheme, which addresses the issue by activating intermediate sleep nodes or by adjusting the communication range of some of the other nodes in the network. The scheme also deactivates the additional activated nodes and reduces the increased communication range when the dumb nodes resume their normal behavior, upon the return of favorable environmental conditions. To implement the proposed scheme, CoRAD it is required to construct the network using GPS-enabled adjustable communication range sensor nodes. Through simulation we compare our proposed scheme with the existing topology management schemes -- LETC and A1 -- in the same scenario by considering the number of activated nodes, message overhead, and energy consumption. We find that the proposed scheme shows improved performance compared to the existing topology management schemes.