A study on topological characteristics of wireless sensor network based on complex network

Abstract

Topology structure is the first step for designing and constructing wireless sensor network. A desirable topology can prolong the life-time of the whole network. This paper focuses on the complexity of the topology structure of the wireless sensor network and analyzes its complex characteristics from the perspective of network science theory. The measurement of wireless sensor network is analyzed in the research. The results indicate that for the mesh network, the degree of the node is uniform distributed, it has comparatively smaller average path length and higher cluster coefficient. Beside, Compare to other type of network, the wireless sensor network is neither regular network nor complete random network. It is between random network and small-world network and has some property which is similar to small-world network. In order to reduce the hops for the network, this paper construct a small-world wireless sensor network by adding some shortcuts to the network, which is subject to the distance constraints between individual nodes. Simulation results shoe that these shortcues will remarkably reduce the average path length. This is beneficial to improve the efficiency of network energy utilization.