The role of queueing theory in the design and analysis of wireless sensor networks: An insight

Most research on the mathematical modelling of wireless sensor networks (WSNs) have focussed mainly on the optimization aspects, such as those relating to sensor placements, data routing, reliability, etc. Surprisingly the issue relating to performance analysis of data processing and transmission at the nodes, have not received as much attention. A considerable amount of delay to data actually happens at the nodes as a result of queue build up. Hence, understanding the role of queueing in WSN modelling is very important. In this paper we study the literature of queueing as applied to WSNs and provide insight to the current state of the art and directions for the future. The utilization of queueing theory in WSNs is broadly classified into four categories, namely, congestion control methods, power allocation schemes, network performance evaluation techniques and scheduling schemes.