Scale-free, self-organizing very large sensor networks

In this paper we introduce SFSN, an algorithm for self-organization of Very Large Sensor Networks (VLSN). The 106 or more tiny and inexpensive sensors of a VLSN are indistinguishable from one another; they do not have either a physical or a logical address, as required by the traditional communication protocols. The self-organization scheme limits the number of partners each sensor collaborates with, thus, it limits the amount of communication and the complexity of coordination. The system is scalable, the amount of state information each node has to maintain is strictly limited regardless of the total number of sensors in the network. The systems we consider mimic biological systems where individual cells of the same type are indistinguishable.