Title: Small-world effects in wireless agent sensor networks

Authors: K.A. Hawick, H.A. James

Addresses: Institute of Information and Mathematical Sciences, Massey University – Albany, North Shore 102-904, Auckland, New Zealand. ' Institute of Information and Mathematical Sciences, Massey University – Albany, North Shore 102-904, Auckland, New Zealand

Abstract: We describe a model for analysing the coverage graph from physical placement of mobile agents or sensor devices to improve coverage, fault tolerance and network lifetime. The planar graph for the devices is augmented by small-world network |short-cuts|; the network then has properties intermediate between those of a fixed regular mesh and a random graph. Results from computational physics involving percolation and scaling phenomena help interpret network behaviours. Individual mobile sensors are modelled as points in Euclidean space with a circular region of influence and awareness; clustering algorithms are used to construct connectivity graphs which are analysed using conventional methods.

Keywords: wireless agents; small-world networks; scaling; percolation; optimal coverage; wireless sensor networks; WSNs; mobile agents; network coverage; fault tolerance; network lifetime; mobile sensors; modelling; clustering algorithms; connectivity graphs.

DOI: 10.1504/IJWMC.2010.034213

International Journal of Wireless and Mobile Computing, 2010 Vol.4 No.3, pp.155 - 164

Published online: 28 Jul 2010 *

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