Decentralized and adaptive sensor data routing

Wireless sensor network (WSN) has been attracting research efforts due to the rapidly increasing applications in military and civilian fields. An important issue in wireless sensor network is how to send information in an efficient and adaptive way. Information can be directly sent back to the base station or through a sequence of intermediate nodes. In the later case, it becomes the problem of routing. Current routing protocols can be categorized into two groups, namely table-drive (proactive) routing protocols and source-initiated on-demand (reactive) routing. For ad hoc wireless sensor network, routing protocols must deal with some unique constraints such as energy conservation, low bandwidth, high error rate and unpredictable topology, of which wired network might not possess. Thus, a routing protocol, which is energy efficient, self-adaptive and error tolerant is highly demanded. A new peer to peer (P2P) routing notion based on the theory of cellular automata has been put forward to solve this problem. We proposed two different models, namely Spin Glass (Physics) inspired model and Multi-fractal (Chemistry) inspired model. Our new routing models are distributed in computation and self-adaptive to topological disturbance. All these merits can not only save significant amount of communication and computation cost but also well adapt to the highly volatile environment of ad hoc WSN. With the cellular automata Cantor modeling tool, we implemented two dynamic link libraries (DLL) in C++ and the corresponding graphic display procedures in Tcl/tk. Results of each model’s routing ability are discussed and hopefully it will lead to new peer to peer algorithms, which can combine the advantages of current models

A Distributed Cellular Automaton Algorithm for Barrier Formation in Mobile Sensor Networks

There is growing interest in the application of wireless sensor networks to the problem of monitoring international borders. In this application, barrier coverage is essential in order to ensure that intrusion events are detected. The use of mobile sensors has the potential to enable barrier coverage to be achieved and maintained in hostile environments where the orderly deployment of sensors is impossible. In this paper, we present a distributed cellular automaton based algorithm for autonomous deployment of mobile sensors to achieve barrier coverage. We compare the algorithm with an existing, state-of- the-art algorithm and show that our proposed algorithm achieves barrier coverage with competitive or improved energy cost, and with a communication overhead that is orders of magnitude less. For dense deployment scenarios, our algorithm uses up to six times less energy than the state-of-the-art algorithm

Nash Equilibria of Packet Forwarding Strategies in Wireless Ad Hoc Networks

In self-organizing ad hoc networks, all the networking functions rely on the contribution of the participants. As a basic example, nodes have to forward packets for each other in order to enable multi-hop communication. In recent years, incentive mechanisms have been proposed to give nodes incentive to cooperate, especially in packet forwarding. However, the need for these mechanisms was not formally justified. In this paper, we address the problem of whether cooperation can exist without incentive mechanisms. We propose a model based on game theory and graph theory to investigate equilibrium conditions of packet forwarding strategies. We prove theorems about the equilibrium conditions for both cooperative and non-cooperative strategies. We perform simulations to estimate the probability that the conditions for a cooperative equilibrium hold in randomly generated network scenarios. As the problem is involved, we deliberately restrict ourselves to a static configuration. We conclude that in static ad hoc networks - where the relationships between the nodes are likely to be stable - cooperation needs to be encouraged. forwarding. However, the need for these mechanisms was not formally justified. In this paper, we address the problem of whether cooperation can exist \emph{without} incentive mechanisms. We propose a model based on game theory and graph theory to investigate equilibrium conditions of packet forwarding strategies. We prove theorems about the equilibrium conditions for both cooperative and non-cooperative strategies. We perform simulations to estimate the probability that the conditions for a cooperative equilibrium hold in randomly generated network scenarios. As the problem is involved, we deliberately restrict ourselves to a static configuration. We conclude that in static ad hoc networks -- where the relationships between the nodes are likely to be stable -- cooperation needs to be encouraged