Adaptively fault-tolerant topology control algorithm for wireless sensor networks

Fault tolerance is one of the critical characteristic of wireless sensor networks (WSNs). The most of researches on fault-tolerant topologies are concentrated on graphics structure properties. However, some attributes of sensor nodes neglected have the same decisive role in topology tolerance. In this paper, by analyzing effects of node attributes on topology tolerance, we presented a new fault-tolerant measurement index, fault-tolerant degree. Then an adaptively fault-tolerant topology control algorithm was proposed to allocate networks resources reasonably. In the algorithm, nodes with higher fault-tolerant degree are selected as backbone nodes, and each backbone node has the backup nodes for promoting performances of networks, including energy efficiency and fault-tolerant capability. Theoretical analysis and simulation results show that the algorithm is efficient and reliable to construct and maintain the fault-tolerant topology for networks.