Robust deployment of wireless sensor networks using gene regulatory networks

Abstract

Sensor nodes in a Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) are responsible for sensing the environment and propagating the collected data in the network. The communication between sensor nodes may fail due to different factors, such as hardware failures, energy depletion, temporal variations of the wireless channel and interference. To maximize efficiency, the sensor network deployment must be robust and resilient to such failures. One effective solution to this problem has been inspired by Gene Regulatory Networks (GRNs). Owing to millions of years of evolution, GRNs display intrinsic properties of adaptation and robustness, thus making them suitable for dynamic network environments. In this paper, we exploit real biological gene structures to deploy wireless sensor networks, called bio-inspired WSNs. Exhaustive structural analysis of the network and experimental results demonstrate that the topology of bio-inspired WSNs is robust, energy-efficient, and resilient to node and link failures. © Springer-Verlag 2013.