Service survivability in wireless networks via multi-layer self-healing

This paper proposes a restoration mechanism for resource-constrained wireless networks. More specifically, our contribution in this paper is two-fold. First, we propose a dynamic policy-based multi-layer self-healing mechanism that taps the merits of the various protocol layers to provide self-healing (service survivability) with partial network resources in the event of random network failures. In particular, we investigate the use of "higher protocol layers", such as layer 4, to help provide self healing capability. Next, we illustrate the power of modeling and simulation (M&S) to provide insights into the performance of complex aspects of wireless networks, since the complexity of the self-healing mechanisms coupled with the stochastic nature of the underlying network renders the use of analytic techniques infeasible unless otherwise simplifying assumptions are made. The latter, however, distort the system and even lead to misleading conclusions. Via M&S, we both demonstrate the working and analyze the performance of the proposed multi-layer restoration mechanism.