Tracking sensor node operation deviations in wireless sensor networks

Abstract

Although the special characteristics of Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) help in reducing sensor node manufacturing and implementation costs, they add new challenges, make network resources scare and reduce network immunity against different conditions. This increases the probability of network nodes deviating from their normal operation and causes network functionality degradation in terms of collected data accuracy and resource use. This paper proposes a distributed monitoring performance algorithm, which tracks these deviations and isolates those that degrade network performance. The results obtained from the empirical and simulation experiments show that the algorithm achieves a high-level of detection reliability with resilience to both high packet loss and environmental changes.