ENS: an Epidemic-Inspired Node Scheduling (ENS) Protocol for Large Scaled Wireless Networks

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) generally consist of densely deployed sensor nodes that depend on batteries for energy. The WSN systems have several applications, from target tracking to environment monitoring. Recently, there has been an increased interest in the design of WSN protocols for mission-critical applications, such as military surveillance, health monitoring, and infrastructure security. These applications require capability of sending data with different real time requirements. However, due to strict resource constraints of the sensor nodes, WSNs pose critical challenges in network protocol design for the mission-critical applications. In this paper, we propose an epidemic-inspired node-scheduling scheme (ENS) with aim of delay guaranteeing. The ENS controls the state of the sensor node depending on the application’s specific requirement under dynamic network environments. Simulation results indicate that the ENS achieves globally optimal behavior with reliable delay guarantees.