Open Access

ARTICLE

An Efficient Connectivity Restoration Technique (ECRT) for Wireless Sensor Network

Mahmood ul Hassan^1,*, Shahzad Ali², Khalid Mahmood³, Muhammad Kashif Saeed⁴, Amin Al-Awady¹, Kamran Javed⁵, Ansar Munir Shah⁶
1 Department of Computer Skills, Preparatory year, Najran University, Najran, 66241, Saudi Arabia
2 Department of Computer Science, Jouf University, Tubarjal, 74769, Saudi Arabia
3 Department of Information Systems, College of Science and Arts, King Khalid University, Mahayil Asir, 63317, Saudi Arabia
4 Department of Computer Science, Community College Mahayil Asir, King Khalid University, Mahayil, 63718, Saudi Arabia
5 Department of Computer Engineering, National University of Technology (NUTECH), Islamabad, 44000, Pakistan
6 Department of Computer Science, Institute of Southern Punjab, Multan, 60000, Pakistan
* Corresponding Author: Mahmood ul Hassan. Email:

Computers, Materials & Continua 2021, 69(1), 1003-1019. https://doi.org/10.32604/cmc.2021.018264

Received 03 March 2021; Accepted 08 April 2021; Issue published 04 June 2021

Abstract

Node failure in Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) is a fundamental problem because WSNs operate in hostile environments. The failure of nodes leads to network partitioning that may compromise the basic operation of the sensor network. To deal with such situations, a rapid recovery mechanism is required for restoring inter-node connectivity. Due to the immense importance and need for a recovery mechanism, several different approaches are proposed in the literature. However, the proposed approaches have shortcomings because they do not focus on energy-efficient operation and coverage-aware mechanisms while performing connectivity restoration. Moreover, most of these approaches rely on the excessive mobility of nodes for restoration connectivity that affects both coverage and energy consumption. This paper proposes a novel technique called ECRT (Efficient Connectivity Restoration Technique). This technique is capable of restoring connectivity due to single and multiple node failures. ECRT achieves energy efficiency by transmitting a minimal number of control packets. It is also coverage-aware as it relocates minimal nodes while trying to restore connectivity. With the help of extensive simulations, it is proven that ECRT is effective in connectivity restoration for single and multiple node failures. Results also show that ECRT exchanges a much smaller number of packets than other techniques. Moreover, it also yields the least reduction in field coverage, proving its versatility for connectivity restoration.

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Keywords

Cut-vertex; failure recovery; network connectivity; node relocation; wireless sensor network; node failures

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