On the potential connectivity advantage of multiple relay technologies in wireless sensor networks

Abstract

Conceptually, a network of sensors with two or more embedded wireless physical layer protocols might gain connectivity advantage by utilizing an available but unused (i.e., redundant) transport technology in the event of link failures within the primary network. We propose a model of link redundancy for wireless networks. Using this model, we show that once a sufficiently high node density has enabled complete connectivity with respect to a single linking technology in an uncluttered environment, cross-network connectivity with randomly located obstructions present might be more efficiently achieved by utilizing multiple internode links than by increasing node density.