Estimation of the number of operating sensors in large-scale sensor networks with mobile access

This paper investigates the estimation of the number of operating sensors in a sensor network in which the data collection is made by a mobile access point. In this paper, an estimator based on the Good-Turing estimator of the missing mass is proposed and it is generalized to other related problems such as the estimation of the distribution of energy available at sensors. The estimator is analyzed using the theory of large deviations. Closed-form bounds on the large deviation exponent are presented and confidence intervals for the estimator are characterized.