Information routing and reliability issues in distributed sensor networks

Communication issues and problems in information routing in distributed sensor networks (DSNs) are considered. Two important communication constraints, viz., the delay constraint and the reliability constraint, are identified, and their impact on information routing is discussed. It is shown that the maximum end-to-end delay in a network depends on the diameter of the network, and efficient distributed algorithms are presented to determine the diameter of asynchronous networks. A distributed algorithm that determines the diameter of an asynchronous tree network when an arbitrary node in the network initiates the algorithm is introduced. An efficient algorithm for determining the diameter when multiple nodes initiate the algorithm is presented. An algorithm to determine the diameter of arbitrary networks is presented, and its message complexity is shown. Effects of link/node failures on network delay are studied, and important network structure design criterion are discussed. The distributed, dynamic routing algorithms are reviewed, and their adaptation to DSN environments is discussed