Exploiting skeletonization to restore connectivity in a wireless sensor network

Recent technological advances and an increasing thrust toward automation have resulted in a rapid adoption of Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) as the de facto choice in monitoring and surveillance applications. Their low cost, versatility and ability to operate around the clock in inhospitable terrains without endangering human life make WSNs ideal for applications like space exploration, environmental monitoring and combat zone surveillance. In these applications WSNs are to operate autonomously for prolonged durations; thus self-healing from failures becomes a requirement to ensure robustness through sustained network connectivity. The paucity of resources makes node repositioning the method of choice to recover from failures that partition the network into numerous disjoint segments. In this paper we present a Geometric Skeleton based Reconnection approach (GSR) that exploits the shape of the deployment area in order to restore connectivity to a partitioned WSN in a distributed manner. GSR decomposes the deployment area into its corresponding two dimensional skeleton outline, along which mobile relays are populated by the surviving disjoint segments to reestablish connectivity. The performance of GSR is validated through mathematical analysis and simulation.