New Energy Efficient and Fault Tolerant Methodology based on a Multi-agent Architecture in Reconfigurable Wireless Sensor Networks

Abstract

Reconfigurable wireless sensor networks became more complex and dynamic systems. Their importance increases with time and more challenges appear. The most important challenges in RWSNs are the energy and software/hardware failure problems. In this paper, we propose a new methodology composed of a set of solutions summarized in the application of the mobility, resizing, and mobile sink nodes using a multi-agent architecture and an energy efficient routing protocol. It contains also a test packet technique to detect the malfunctioning entities and isolate them. Moreover, we develop a simulator named RWSNSim which allows simulating WSNs and RWSNs with and without application of the proposed methodology. It permits also to compare the different results using line charts. Finally, we simulate a case study with RWSNSim in a 3D environment to evaluate the performance of the proposed methodology.