Using Patterns of Social Dynamics in the Design of Social Networks of Sensors

Sensor networks are gaining in importance in today´s society, from air-pollution monitoring to forest-fire detection, from agriculture to battlefield communication, sensor networks are ubiquitous in many parts of the world. Furthermore, this is a world where sensors are increasingly integrated in smart phones and tablets. The use of this collection sensors as sensor-network infrastructures (towards what we call Social Networks of Sensors´´, or SNoS) may be very fruitful and economically advantageous. However, it also introduces some new research challenges, one of which relates to understanding the potential impact of social mobility patterns to the performances of sensor infrastructures. This paper delves into such issue and analyses how the presence of mobile sensors moving according to social mobility patterns can impact the performances of fixed sensor network infrastructures and their design choices. Simulation results show that such integration can lead to increased efficiency of the integrated SNoS infrastructure for both sensing coverage and data delivery.