Maintaining an acceptable level of network performance degradation in the presence of faults has been an active research area in wireless sensor networks (WSNs). This paper proposes a scheme to optimize the total network performance by exploiting fault-aware rate control and multi-path routing in WSNs. We use statistical information and estimation on each wireless link to characterize the effect of faults, and develop a leaky-path model. This model takes account of packet loss along fault-paths and the 'shrinking' feature of effective flow at the destination node. Based on the leaky-path model, we propose a fault-correlated flow control and routing ((FC) 2 R) approach to maximize the network utility of effective flows. A novel distributed algorithm is designed to adjust flow rates adaptively on each path, using multi-path routing. Our simulation results demonstrate that higher effective network throughput, and better fairness, can be achieved by our ((FC) 2 R) algorithm than the standard optimal flow control in the presence of faults.
['Xiaomei Zhang', 'Xiaolei Dong', 'Jie Wu', 'Xiuqi Li', 'Naixue Xiong']
Fault-Aware Flow Control and Multi-Path Routing in Wireless Sensor Networks