Abstract
The operation of the Internet of Things (IoT) networks and Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) is often disrupted by a number of problems, such as path disconnections, network segmentation, node faults, and security attacks. A method that gains momentum in resolving some of those issues is the use of mobile nodes or nodes deployed by mobile robots. The use of mobile elements essentially increases the resources and the capacity of the network. In this work, we present a Node Placement Algorithm with two variations, which utilizes mobile nodes for the creation of alternative paths from source to sink. The first variation employs mobile nodes that create locally-significant alternative paths leading to the sink. The second variation employs mobile nodes that create completely individual (disjoint) paths to the sink. We then extend the local variation of the algorithm by also accounting for the energy levels of the nodes as a contributing factor regarding the creation of alternative paths. We offer both a high-level description of the concept and also detailed algorithmic solutions. The evaluation of the solutions was performed in a case study of resolving congestion in the network. Results have shown that the proposed algorithms can significantly contribute to the alleviation of the problem of congestion in IoT and WSNs and can easily be used for other types of network problems.
Highlights
It is a widespread belief that the Internet of Things (IoT) is an emerging technology that has the power to change our future
The device and communications part of an IoT system is a direct descendant of Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) [1,2], in the sense that it is about networked, resource-constrained systems mainly focusing on low-power wireless devices
Our work focuses only on mobile nodes, which take up the role of the sensor nodes within the network; they are not used as mobile sink nodes and are not considered as mobile robots
Summary
It is a widespread belief that the Internet of Things (IoT) is an emerging technology that has the power to change our future. The promise of this technology makes it one of the most active fields of research, covering all its aspects of performance. It is in this context that the work presented here takes place and whose objective is to improve the communications within IoT networks. Many IoT networks exhibit unique characteristics and come with some important limitations, such as energy, memory and computational power.
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
