Opportunistic scheduling of a message ferry in sensor networks

We study the concept of Ferry based Wireless Local Area Network (FWLAN), in which a number of isolated nodes are scattered over some area and where communication between a node and the outer world, or communication between the nodes, are made possible via a message ferry. The Ferry travels in a predetermined cyclic path and collects/delivers messages from/to a node when it stops in the vicinity of the node. The radio conditions may change between successive visits of a station. We consider an opportunistic service in which the shuttle serves a node only if its radio conditions are good. Our analytical results are based on the theory of polling systems with rerouting.