A hierarchical routing graph for supporting mobile devices in industrial wireless sensor networks

Abstract

As many industrial applications require real-time and reliability communication, a variety of routing graph construction schemes were proposed to satisfy the requirements in Industrial Wireless Sensor Networks (IWSNs). Each device transmits packet through a route which is designated based on the graph. However, as existing studies consider a network consists of static devices only, they cannot cope with the network changes by movement of mobile devices considered important in the recent industrial environment. Thus, the communication requirements cannot be guaranteed because the existing path is broken by the varying network topology. The communication failure could cause critical problems such as malfunctioning equipment. The problem is caused repeatedly by continuous movement of mobile devices, even if a new graph is reconstructed for responding the changed topology. To support mobile devices exploited in various industrial environments, we propose a Hierarchical Routing Graph Construction (HRGC). The HRGC is consisted of two phases for hierarchical graph construction: In first phase, a robust graph called skeleton graph consisting only of static devices is constructed. The skeleton graph is not affected by network topology changes and does not suffer from packet loss. In second phase, the mobile devices are grafted into the skeleton graph for seamless communication. Through the grafting process, the routes are established in advance for mobile device to communicate with nearby static devices in anywhere. The simulation results show that the packet delivery ratio is improved when the graph is constructed through the HRGC.