An Application-Oriented Network Model for Wireless Sensor Networks

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) are energy-constrained networks. The residual energy real-time monitoring (RERM) is very important for WSNs. Moreover, network model is an important foundation of RERM research at personal area network (PAN) level. Because RERM is inherently application-oriented, the network model adopted should also be application-oriented. However, many factors of WSNs applications such as link selected probability and ACK mechanism etc. were neglected by current network models. These factors can introduce obvious influence on throughput of WSNs. Then the energy consumption of nodes will be influenced greatly. So these models cannot characterize many real properties of WSNs, and the result of RERM is not consistent with the real-world situation. In this study, these factors neglected by other researchers are taken into account. Furthermore, an application-oriented general network model (AGNM) for RERM is proposed. Based on the AGNM, the dynamic characteristics of WSNs are simulated. The experimental results show that AGNM can approximately characterize the real situation of WSNs. Therefore, the AGNM provides a good foundation for RERM research.