Deployment of robust wireless sensor networks using gene regulatory networks: An isomorphism-based approach

The communication between nodes in a Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) may fail due to different factors, such as hardware malfunctions, energy depletion, temporal variations of the wireless channel and interference. To maximize efficiency, the sensor network deployment must be robust and resilient to such failures. One effective solution to this problem is to exploit a bio-inspired approach based on Gene Regulatory Networks (GRNs). Owing to million years of evolution, GRNs display intrinsic properties of adaptation and robustness, thus making them suitable for dynamic network environments. In this article, we exploit the genetic structure of real organisms to deploy bio-inspired WSNs that are isomorphic to certain GRN sub-networks. Exhaustive structural analysis, simulations and experimental results on a WSN testbed demonstrate that bio-inspired WSNs are resilient to node and link failures and offer better performance than existing solutions for robust WSNs.