WSN Lifetime and Reliability Analysis From the Death Criterion Perspective

Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) are widely used in numerous critical applications, and require the network to have a prolonged lifetime and high tolerance to failures. However, the battery-operated sensor nodes used in WSNs cause the network to be resource-constrained. On the one hand, there is a continuous urge to efficiently exploit the WSN energy, and hence, prolong the network lifetime. On the other hand, WSN node failures are not only attributed to battery drain. Node failures can be caused by hardware or software malfunctioning. In this article, the authors assess the impact of the death criterion on the network lifetime and reliability. It is related how the data from the different sensors are aggregated to the death criterion. Additionally, the impact of the number of sensing cycles per network master on the network lifetime and energy efficiency for the different considered death criteria. The effect of the network master selection process on the energy efficiency is also examined. Finally, the impact of the death criterion on the reliability of the WSN is evaluated.