2,568 research outputs found
A constraint programming approach to the additional relay placement problem in wireless sensor networks
A Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) is composed of many sensor nodes which transmit their data wirelessly over a multi-hop network to data sinks. Since WSNs are subject to node failures, the network topology should be robust, so that when a failure does occur, data delivery can continue from all surviving nodes. A WSN is k-robust if an alternate length-constrained route to a sink is available for each surviving node after the failure of up to k-1 nodes. Determining whether a network is k-robust is an NP-complete problem. We develop a Constraint Programming (CP) approach for solving this problem which outperforms a Mixed-Integer Programming (MIP) model on larger problems. A network can be made robust by deploying extra relay nodes, and we extend our CP approach to an optimisation problem by using QuickXplain to search for a minimal set of relays, and compare it to a state-of-the-art local search approach
Optimal fault-tolerant placement of relay nodes in a mission critical wireless network
The operations of many critical infrastructures (e.g., airports) heavily depend on proper functioning of the radio communication network supporting operations. As a result, such a communication network is indeed a mission-critical communication network that needs adequate protection from external electromagnetic interferences. This is usually done through radiogoniometers. Basically, by using at least three suitably deployed radiogoniometers and a gateway gathering information from them, sources of electromagnetic emissions that are not supposed to be present in the monitored area can be localised. Typically, relay nodes are used to connect radiogoniometers to the gateway. As a result, some degree of fault-tolerance for the network of relay nodes is essential in order to offer a reliable monitoring. On the other hand, deployment of relay nodes is typically quite expensive. As a result, we have two conflicting requirements: minimise costs while guaranteeing a given fault-tolerance. In this paper address the problem of computing a deployment for relay nodes that minimises the relay node network cost while at the same time guaranteeing proper working of the network even when some of the relay nodes (up to a given maximum number) become faulty (fault-tolerance). We show that the above problem can be formulated as a Mixed Integer Linear Programming (MILP) as well as a Pseudo-Boolean Satisfiability (PB-SAT) optimisation problem and present experimental results com- paring the two approaches on realistic scenarios
Deploy-As-You-Go Wireless Relay Placement: An Optimal Sequential Decision Approach using the Multi-Relay Channel Model
We use information theoretic achievable rate formulas for the multi-relay
channel to study the problem of as-you-go deployment of relay nodes. The
achievable rate formulas are for full-duplex radios at the relays and for
decode-and-forward relaying. Deployment is done along the straight line joining
a source node and a sink node at an unknown distance from the source. The
problem is for a deployment agent to walk from the source to the sink,
deploying relays as he walks, given that the distance to the sink is
exponentially distributed with known mean. As a precursor, we apply the
multi-relay channel achievable rate formula to obtain the optimal power
allocation to relays placed along a line, at fixed locations. This permits us
to obtain the optimal placement of a given number of nodes when the distance
between the source and sink is given. Numerical work suggests that, at low
attenuation, the relays are mostly clustered near the source in order to be
able to cooperate, whereas at high attenuation they are uniformly placed and
work as repeaters. We also prove that the effect of path-loss can be entirely
mitigated if a large enough number of relays are placed uniformly between the
source and the sink. The structure of the optimal power allocation for a given
placement of the nodes, then motivates us to formulate the problem of as-you-go
placement of relays along a line of exponentially distributed length, and with
the exponential path-loss model, so as to minimize a cost function that is
additive over hops. The hop cost trades off a capacity limiting term, motivated
from the optimal power allocation solution, against the cost of adding a relay
node. We formulate the problem as a total cost Markov decision process,
establish results for the value function, and provide insights into the
placement policy and the performance of the deployed network via numerical
exploration.Comment: 21 pages. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with
arXiv:1204.432
Towards the fast and robust optimal design of Wireless Body Area Networks
Wireless body area networks are wireless sensor networks whose adoption has
recently emerged and spread in important healthcare applications, such as the
remote monitoring of health conditions of patients. A major issue associated
with the deployment of such networks is represented by energy consumption: in
general, the batteries of the sensors cannot be easily replaced and recharged,
so containing the usage of energy by a rational design of the network and of
the routing is crucial. Another issue is represented by traffic uncertainty:
body sensors may produce data at a variable rate that is not exactly known in
advance, for example because the generation of data is event-driven. Neglecting
traffic uncertainty may lead to wrong design and routing decisions, which may
compromise the functionality of the network and have very bad effects on the
health of the patients. In order to address these issues, in this work we
propose the first robust optimization model for jointly optimizing the topology
and the routing in body area networks under traffic uncertainty. Since the
problem may result challenging even for a state-of-the-art optimization solver,
we propose an original optimization algorithm that exploits suitable linear
relaxations to guide a randomized fixing of the variables, supported by an
exact large variable neighborhood search. Experiments on realistic instances
indicate that our algorithm performs better than a state-of-the-art solver,
fast producing solutions associated with improved optimality gaps.Comment: Authors' manuscript version of the paper that was published in
Applied Soft Computin
Consistent Sensor, Relay, and Link Selection in Wireless Sensor Networks
In wireless sensor networks, where energy is scarce, it is inefficient to
have all nodes active because they consume a non-negligible amount of battery.
In this paper we consider the problem of jointly selecting sensors, relays and
links in a wireless sensor network where the active sensors need to communicate
their measurements to one or multiple access points. Information messages are
routed stochastically in order to capture the inherent reliability of the
broadcast links via multiple hops, where the nodes may be acting as sensors or
as relays. We aim at finding optimal sparse solutions where both, the
consistency between the selected subset of sensors, relays and links, and the
graph connectivity in the selected subnetwork are guaranteed. Furthermore,
active nodes should ensure a network performance in a parameter estimation
scenario. Two problems are studied: sensor and link selection; and sensor,
relay and link selection. To solve such problems, we present tractable
optimization formulations and propose two algorithms that satisfy the previous
network requirements. We also explore an extension scenario: only link
selection. Simulation results show the performance of the algorithms and
illustrate how they provide a sparse solution, which not only saves energy but
also guarantees the network requirements.Comment: 27 pages, 17 figure
Lifetime Improvement in Wireless Sensor Networks via Collaborative Beamforming and Cooperative Transmission
Collaborative beamforming (CB) and cooperative transmission (CT) have
recently emerged as communication techniques that can make effective use of
collaborative/cooperative nodes to create a virtual
multiple-input/multiple-output (MIMO) system. Extending the lifetime of
networks composed of battery-operated nodes is a key issue in the design and
operation of wireless sensor networks. This paper considers the effects on
network lifetime of allowing closely located nodes to use CB/CT to reduce the
load or even to avoid packet-forwarding requests to nodes that have critical
battery life. First, the effectiveness of CB/CT in improving the signal
strength at a faraway destination using energy in nearby nodes is studied.
Then, the performance improvement obtained by this technique is analyzed for a
special 2D disk case. Further, for general networks in which
information-generation rates are fixed, a new routing problem is formulated as
a linear programming problem, while for other general networks, the cost for
routing is dynamically adjusted according to the amount of energy remaining and
the effectiveness of CB/CT. From the analysis and the simulation results, it is
seen that the proposed method can reduce the payloads of energy-depleting nodes
by about 90% in the special case network considered and improve the lifetimes
of general networks by about 10%, compared with existing techniques.Comment: Invited paper to appear in the IEE Proceedings: Microwaves, Antennas
and Propagation, Special Issue on Antenna Systems and Propagation for Future
Wireless Communication
- …