Localized and configurable topology control in lossy wireless sensor networks

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) introduce new challenges to topology control due to the prevalence of lossy links. We propose a new topology control formulation for lossy WSNs. In contrast to previous deterministic models, our formulation captures the stochastic nature of lossy links and quantifies the worst-case path quality in a network. We develop a novel localized scheme called configurable topology control (CTC). The key feature of CTC is its capability of flexibly configuring the topology of a lossy WSN to achieve desired path quality bounds in a localized fashion. Furthermore, CTC can incorporate different control strategies (per-node/per-link) and optimization criteria. Simulations using a realistic radio model of Mica2 motes show that CTC significantly outperforms an representative traditional topology control algorithm called LMST in terms of both communication performance and energy efficiency. Our results demonstrate the importance of incorporating lossy links of WSNs in the design of topology control algorithms. (c) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.