Reliable Networks with Unreliable Sensors Conference Paper uri icon

abstract

  • Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) deployed in hostile environments suffer from a high rate of node failure. We investigate the effect of such failure rate on network connectivity. We provide a formal analysis that establishes the relationship between node density, network size, failure probability, and network connectivity. We show that as network size and density increase, the probability of network partitioning becomes arbitrarily small. We show that large networks can maintain connectivity despite a significantly high probability of node failure. We derive mathematical functions that provide lower bounds on network connectivity in WSNs. We compute these functions for some realistic values of node reliability, area covered by the network, and node density, to show that, for instance, networks with over a million nodes can maintain connectivity with a probability exceeding 99% despite node failure probability exceeding 57%. 2011 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.

name of conference

  • Distributed Computing and Networking - 12th International Conference, ICDCN 2011, Bangalore, India, January 2-5, 2011. Proceedings

published proceedings

  • DISTRIBUTED COMPUTING AND NETWORKING

author list (cited authors)

  • Sastry, S., Radeva, T., Chen, J., & Welch, J. L.

citation count

  • 1

complete list of authors

  • Sastry, Srikanth||Radeva, Tsvetomira||Chen, Jianer||Welch, Jennifer L

publication date

  • January 2011