Title: On the hop count statistics for randomly deployed wireless sensor networks

Authors: Stefan Dulman, Michele Rossi, Paul Havinga, Michele Zorzi

Addresses: EWI Faculty, University of Twente, The Netherlands. ' Department of Information Engineering, University of Padova, Italy. ' EWI Faculty, University of Twente, The Netherlands. ' Department of Information Engineering, University of Padova, Italy

Abstract: In this paper we focus on exploiting the information provided by a generally accepted and largely ignored hypothesis (the random deployment of the nodes of an ad hoc or wireless sensor network) to design improved networking protocols. Specifically, we derive the relationship between the number of hops separating two nodes and the physical distance between them (one- and two- dimensional topologies). In this way, distance estimates between nodes are made available without the use of any distance measuring hardware. We conclude the paper showing how the obtained statistical results can be applied to improve the performance of distributed localisation protocols while simplifying their implementation.

Keywords: hop count statistics; multi-hop transmission techniques; random deployment; sensor networks; statistically enhanced localisation algorithms; wireless sensor networks; WSN; wireless networks; ad hoc networks; network design.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSNET.2006.010837

International Journal of Sensor Networks, 2006 Vol.1 No.1/2, pp.89 - 102

Published online: 06 Sep 2006 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article