Node importance measure in linear wireless sensor networks

This article analyzes the node importance in linear wireless sensor networks, which can be used to identify the key states of nodes that affect the wireless sensor network performance most. First, the sensor energy can be divided into energy of sensing event, energy of transmitting packets, and energy of receiving packets. The node residual energy of after data flow transmission in linear wireless sensor networks from source nodes and relay nodes is evaluated. Second, the node state is divided into four states based on the data packets transmitting. From the view of reliability theory, a data-flow model is analyzed to calculate the state probability of source node and relay node in the time period [0, t]. Third, the node importance is analyzed, and the ranking of node importance values can be used by designers and managers to identify the most important node for improving the wireless sensor network system reliability. At last, a numerical example is given to demonstrate the proposed methods.