Obstacle-aware connectivity restoration for the partitioned wireless sensor networks using mobile data carriers.

In a Wireless Sensor Network (WSN), sensor nodes are deployed to detect physical parameters in hostile environments. The sensor nodes rely on each other for effective data transmission. When the articulation points fail, the network is split into disjoint segments, resulting in the network partitioning problem. In this situation, connecting the disjoint partitions using a mobile relay node (MD-carrier) is a must to maintain the functional operations of WSN. However, the presence of obstacles in the trajectory path makes touring a challenging task. Consequently, finding tour paths by avoiding obstacles has always been one of the most common WSN problems. An Obstacle-avoiding Connectivity Restoration Strategy for partitioned WSN using MD-carriers (OCRS-MD) to re-establish connectivity in the presence of obstacles has been proposed in this paper. OCRS-MD includes a path-finding algorithm that bypasses obstacles for the effectual touring of the MD-carrier. An algorithm has also been proposed for identifying the MD-carriers' sojourn locations. Hence, the MD-carrier follows the optimal touring path, pausing at sojourn locations to collect data from the segments. As a result, OCRS-MD restores the partitioned WSN's connectivity by reporting the collected data to the sink node. The primary goal of OCRS-MD is to restore network connectivity in the presence of obstacles with reduced travel distance and latency. The computational complexity of OCRS-MD is O (n 2) , where 'n' is the number of disjoint segments in the network. The simulation results indicate that OCRS-MD reduces tour length and latency by an average of 16.89% and 15.47%, respectively, when compared to the existing OACE and EEDRM approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]