Distributed Symbolic Network Quality Assessment for Resource-constrained Devices

Abstract

After a Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) is deployed it is subject to significant variations of the quality of its radio links during its lifetime. Knowledge of the condition of the wireless links can be useful to optimize power consumption and increase the reliability of the network. However, resource-constrained nodes may not be able to spare the storage space for network monitoring code. Also, reprogramming deployed nodes can be costly or unfeasible. In this work, we show how an approach based on the exchange of symbolic executable code among nodes enables the assessment of the network status in terms of Packet Reception Rate (PRR) with no extra storage requirements on deployed networks. We also compare the predictions made through this estimate with the actual network behavior.