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Topology Control and Protocols in Sensor Network and IoT Applications

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A special issue of Sensors (ISSN 1424-8220). This special issue belongs to the section "Sensor Networks".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 December 2019) | Viewed by 48731

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Special Issue Editors

Dr. Wenye Wang

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Guest Editor

Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695, USA
Interests: algorithm and protocol design in mobile wireless networks; mobile clouds; vehicle-to-vehicle communications; wireless in the Smart Grid

Prof. Dr. Yulong Shen

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor

School of Computer Science and Technology, Xidian University, Xi'an 710075, China
Interests: 5G systems security; cloud computing security; big data analytics and security; IoT security
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Dr. Mingkui Wei

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor

Department of Computer Science, Sam Houston State University, Huntsville, TX 77341, USA
Interests: cyber-physical systems; network security and privacy; network and computer forensics; wireless in Smart Grid

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

In the last decade, we have witnessed substantial developments in fields such as computing, networking and communications, and sensing. The advancement of such technologies lay the foundation and bring traditional sensor networks into the new paradigm, i.e., the Internet of Things (IoT). IoT aims to facilitate the interconnection and interaction among numerous devices such as sensors and actuators, and enables the cyber system to sense and react to the physical world. On the other hand, IoT differs from traditional sensor networks in its vast scale and diversity. With billions of devices of various types all interconnected, issues such as system scalability and energy efficiency begin to emerge as new challenges, which call for the next generation of topology control and protocols to provide better network connectivity and energy efficiency.

The aim of this Special Issue is to solicit papers from academia and industry researchers with original and innovative works on all aspects of topology control and protocol in sensor networks and IoT applications, which review and report on start-of-the-art, highlight challenges, and point to future directions.

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

Topology management in IoT and sensor networks
Topology construction and maintenance algorithms
Failure detection in IoT and sensor networks
Failure tolerant in IoT and sensor networks
Power control and power management
Testbed, benchmark, and simulation studies in IoT and sensor networks
Security and privacy issues in topology control of sensor networks

Dr. Wenye Wang
Dr. Yulong Shen
Dr. Mingkui Wei
Guest Editors

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Keywords

Sensor network
Internet of Things
Topology control and protocol
IoT security and privacy

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Published Papers (11 papers)

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Research

21 pages, 3779 KiB

Open AccessArticle

FW-PSO Algorithm to Enhance the Invulnerability of Industrial Wireless Sensor Networks Topology

by Ying Zhang, Guangyuan Yang and Bin Zhang

Sensors 2020, 20(4), 1114; https://doi.org/10.3390/s20041114 - 18 Feb 2020

Cited by 13 | Viewed by 2981

Abstract

When an industrial wireless sensor network (WSN) is seriously disturbed and intentionally attacked, sometimes it fails easily, even leading to the paralysis of the entire industrial wireless network. In order to improve the invulnerability of networks, in this paper, the scale-free network in complex networks is taken as the research object, and the industrial WSN with scale-free characteristics is modeled. Based on the advantages of the fireworks algorithm, such as strong searching ability and diversity of population, a so-called fireworks and particle swarm optimization (FW-PSO) algorithm is proposed, which can improve the global search ability and convergence speed effectively. The proposed FW-PSO algorithm is used to optimize the network topology and form a network with the largest natural connectivity, which can effectively promote the ability of network to resist the cascade failure problem. The dynamic invulnerability of the optimized network under highest-degree (HD) attack and lowest-degree (LD) attack strategies, as well as the static invulnerability under random attack, were evaluated respectively. Simulation experiments show that the industrial WSN optimized by FW-PSO can significantly improve the performance of the dynamic and static invulnerabilities compared with the initial network and the networks optimized by the other two existing algorithms. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Topology Control and Protocols in Sensor Network and IoT Applications)

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14 pages, 1836 KiB

Open AccessArticle

A Hybrid Optimization from Two Virtual Physical Force Algorithms for Dynamic Node Deployment in WSN Applications

by Qiang Li, Qiang Yi, Rongxin Tang, Xin Qian, Kai Yuan and Shiyun Liu

Sensors 2019, 19(23), 5108; https://doi.org/10.3390/s19235108 - 22 Nov 2019

Cited by 9 | Viewed by 2779

Abstract

With the rapid development of unmanned aerial vehicle in space exploration and national defense, large-scale wireless sensor network (WSN) became an important and effective technology. It may require highly accurate locating for the nodes in some real applications. The dynamic node topology control of a large-scale WSN in an unmanned region becomes a hot research topic recently, which helps improve the system connectivity and coverage. In this paper, a hybrid optimization based on two different virtual force algorithms inspired by the interactions among physical sensor nodes is proposed to address the self-consistent node deployment in a large-scale WSN. At the early stage, the deployment algorithm was to deploy the sensor nodes by leveraging the particle motions in dusty plasma to achieve the hexagonal topology of the so-called “Yukawa crystal”. After that, another virtual exchange force model was combined to present a hybrid optimization, which could yield perfect hexagonal topology, better network uniformity, higher coverage rate, and faster convergence speed. The influence of node position, velocity, and acceleration during the node deployment stage on the final network topology are carefully discussed for this scheme. It can aid engineers to control the network topology for a large number of wireless sensors with affordable system cost by choosing suitable parameters based on physical environments or application scenarios in the near future. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Topology Control and Protocols in Sensor Network and IoT Applications)

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18 pages, 2366 KiB

Open AccessArticle

A Methodology for Choosing Time Synchronization Strategies for Wireless IoT Networks

by Francisco Tirado-Andrés, Alba Rozas and Alvaro Araujo

Sensors 2019, 19(16), 3476; https://doi.org/10.3390/s19163476 - 9 Aug 2019

Cited by 19 | Viewed by 4586

Abstract

The wireless Internet of Things (IoT) family grows without interruption. Every day more applications and wireless devices are available to interconnect and help solve multiple problems in areas such as health, critical infrastructure, industry, etc. Many of the tasks to be performed by the IoT network require time synchronization for their correct operation, either to use the spectrum more efficiently, to add data from different sensors, or to carry out coordinated communications. Each of these applications has different requirements regarding time synchronization. This means that the decision of which strategy to follow to synchronize an IoT end device becomes a task that requires important prior analysis and usually, if developers are experts in the topic, ends with the implementation of an ad hoc solution. In this article, we present a methodology to choose an adequate time-synchronization strategy for any wireless IoT application. We also present a tool that executes the methodology, guiding the IoT application developer through some input forms. This combination of methodology and tool abstracts developers from the complexities of time-synchronization strategies, allowing them to choose the correct strategy regardless of their level of knowledge in wireless IoT time synchronization. As a result, the methodology offers a set of time-synchronization strategies that are adjusted to the needs of developers and applications. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Topology Control and Protocols in Sensor Network and IoT Applications)

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19 pages, 1881 KiB

Open AccessArticle

A Bi-Directional Carrier Sense Collision Avoidance Neighbor Discovery Algorithm in Directional Wireless Ad Hoc Sensor Networks

by Annan Yang, Bo Li, Zhongjiang Yan and Mao Yang

Sensors 2019, 19(9), 2120; https://doi.org/10.3390/s19092120 - 7 May 2019

Cited by 15 | Viewed by 3035

Abstract

From the perspective of media protocol control and routing of directional wireless ad hoc sensors networks, neighbor discovery protocol is an important problem to be solved first. In the past period of time, some methods have been studied on neighbor discovery protocol, but they have a common defect of link collision. The collision is caused by mutual interference of multiple transmitting nodes which are in one reception beam of the receiving node. To solve this problem, we propose a neighbor discovery algorithm using a bi-directional carrier sense collision avoidance and multi subchannels based on a scan-based algorithm (BD-SBA). Based on a scan-based algorithm (SBA), bi-directional carrier sense of the BD-SBA algorithm is performed in the first broadcast step which can reduce the collision of broadcasting the scanning request (SREQ) frames. In the second step (the reply step), the mechanism of multiple subchannels and multiple slots is applied to reduce the collision of the scanning response (SRES) frames. From the analysis and simulation, we can see that nodes using proposed algorithm can discover their neighbor nodes in fewer time. Moreover, the proposed algorithm has better performance for different beamwidths and densely distributed scenes. So it has great significance in engineering application. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Topology Control and Protocols in Sensor Network and IoT Applications)

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25 pages, 1324 KiB

Open AccessArticle

An Efficient Relayed Broadcasting Based on the Duplication Estimation Model for IoT Applications

by Youngboo Kim and Eun-Chan Park

Sensors 2019, 19(9), 2038; https://doi.org/10.3390/s19092038 - 30 Apr 2019

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2890

Abstract

In this paper, we consider relay-based broadcasting in wireless ad hoc networks, which can enable various emerging services in the Internet of Things (IoT). In this kind of traffic dissemination scheme, also known as flooding, all the nodes not only receive frames but also rebroadcast them. However, without an appropriate relay suppression, a broadcast storm problem arises, i.e., the transmission may fail due to severe collisions and/or interference, many duplicate frames are unnecessarily transmitted, and the traffic dissemination time increases. To mitigate the broadcast storm problem, we propose a reasonable criterion to restrict the rebroadcasting named the duplication ratio. Based on this, we propose an efficient mechanism consisting of duplication suppression and re-queuing schemes. The former discards duplicate frames proactively in a probabilistic manner to decrease the redundancy whereas the latter provides a secondary transmission opportunity reactively to compensate for the delivery failure. Moreover, to apply the duplication ratio practically, we propose a simple method to approximate it based on the number of adjacent nodes. The simulation study confirms that the proposed mechanism tightly ensured the reliability and decreased the traffic dissemination time by up to 6-fold compared to conventional mechanisms. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Topology Control and Protocols in Sensor Network and IoT Applications)

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19 pages, 2523 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Achieving Source Location Privacy Protection in Monitoring Wireless Sensor Networks through Proxy Node Routing

by Lilian C. Mutalemwa and Seokjoo Shin

Sensors 2019, 19(5), 1037; https://doi.org/10.3390/s19051037 - 28 Feb 2019

Cited by 27 | Viewed by 3433

Abstract

Achieving high source location privacy is critical when Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) are used in sensitive applications such as in asset or battlefield monitoring. Due to the sensitivity of information in these applications, it is important to ensure the flow of data between sensor nodes is secure and it does not expose any information about the monitored assets to an adversary. This paper proposes a routing scheme with stronger source location privacy than the privacy of traditional routing schemes. The paper addresses some limitations of four existing schemes by providing highly random routing paths between the source nodes and sink node. The scheme randomly sends packet to the sink node through tactically positioned proxy nodes to guarantee the routes are highly befuddling to the adversary. To achieve high privacy, the proposed scheme uses a randomizing factor to generate a new random route for every successive packet. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed scheme provides longer safety period and stronger privacy to outperform other schemes. Furthermore the scheme provides stronger privacy against both, patient and cautious adversary models. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Topology Control and Protocols in Sensor Network and IoT Applications)

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19 pages, 12533 KiB

Open AccessArticle

IoT-Based Resource Control for In-Vehicle Infotainment Services: Design and Experimentation

by Dong-Kyu Choi, Joong-Hwa Jung, Ji-In Kim, Moneeb Gohar and Seok-Joo Koh

Sensors 2019, 19(3), 620; https://doi.org/10.3390/s19030620 - 1 Feb 2019

Cited by 7 | Viewed by 4699

Abstract

A variety of in-vehicle infotainment (IVI) devices and services have been developed by many vehicle vendors and software companies, which include navigation systems, cameras, speakers, headrest displays, and heating seat. However, there has not been enough research on how to effectively control and manage numerous IVI resources (devices and contents), so as to provide users with more enhanced services. This paper proposes a framework of resource control for IVI services so as to efficiently manage the IVI resources within an automobile. Differently from conventional IVI systems, in the proposed scheme, the IVI-Master is newly introduced for overall control of IVI resources, and IVI users are divided into owner and users. In addition, the IVI resources are classified as personal resources and shared resources, which are managed by the IVI-Master using the Lightweight Machine-to-Machine (LWM2M) standard. The proposed IoT-based IVI resource control scheme was implemented and tested. The experimental results showed that the proposed scheme can be used to effectively manage IVI resources for users. Additionally, the proposed resource control scheme shows lower bandwidth usage than the existing scheme. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Topology Control and Protocols in Sensor Network and IoT Applications)

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26 pages, 2314 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Clustered Data Muling in the Internet of Things in Motion

by Emmanuel Tuyishimire, Antoine Bagula and Adiel Ismail

Sensors 2019, 19(3), 484; https://doi.org/10.3390/s19030484 - 24 Jan 2019

Cited by 13 | Viewed by 4198

Abstract

This paper considers a case where an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) is used to monitor an area of interest. The UAV is assisted by a Sensor Network (SN), which is deployed in the area such as a smart city or smart village. The area being monitored has a reasonable size and hence may contain many sensors for efficient and accurate data collection. In this case, it would be expensive for one UAV to visit all the sensors; hence the need to partition the ground network into an optimum number of clusters with the objective of having the UAV visit only cluster heads (fewer sensors). In such a setting, the sensor readings (sensor data) would be sent to cluster heads where they are collected by the UAV upon its arrival. This paper proposes a clustering scheme that optimizes not only the sensor network energy usage, but also the energy used by the UAV to cover the area of interest. The computation of the number of optimal clusters in a dense and uniformly-distributed sensor network is proposed to complement the k-means clustering algorithm when used as a network engineering technique in hybrid UAV/terrestrial networks. Furthermore, for general networks, an efficient clustering model that caters for both orphan nodes and multi-layer optimization is proposed and analyzed through simulations using the city of Cape Town in South Africa as a smart city hybrid network engineering use-case. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Topology Control and Protocols in Sensor Network and IoT Applications)

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31 pages, 7421 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Implementation of an IoT Based Radar Sensor Network for Wastewater Management

by Adam Drenoyanis, Raad Raad, Ivan Wady and Carmel Krogh

Sensors 2019, 19(2), 254; https://doi.org/10.3390/s19020254 - 10 Jan 2019

Cited by 35 | Viewed by 8987

Abstract

Critical wastewater events such as sewer main blockages or overflows are often not detected until after the fact. These events can be costly, from both an environmental impact and monetary standpoint. A standalone, portable radar device allowing non-invasive benchmarking of sewer pumping station (SPS) pumps is presented. Further, by configuring and deploying a complete Low Power Wide Area Network (LPWAN), Shoalhaven Water (SW) now has the opportunity to create “Internet of Things” (IoT)-capable devices that offer freedom from the reliance on mobile network providers, whilst avoiding congestion on the existing Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) telemetry backbone. This network infrastructure allows for devices capable of real-time monitoring to alert of any system failures, providing an effective tool to proactively capture the current state of the sewer network between the much larger SPSs. This paper presents novel solutions to improve the current wastewater network management procedures employed by SW. This paper also offers a complete review of wastewater monitoring networks and is one of the first to offer robust testing of Long Range Wide Area Network (LoRaWAN) network capabilities in Australia. The paper also provides a comprehensive summary of the LoRa protocol and all its functions. It was found that a LPWAN, utilising the LoRaWAN protocol and deployed appropriately within a geographic area, can attain maximum transmission distances of 20 km within an urban environment and up to 35 km line of sight. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Topology Control and Protocols in Sensor Network and IoT Applications)

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17 pages, 1615 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Enhanced Message-Passing Based LEACH Protocol for Wireless Sensor Networks

by Jaeyoung Kang, Illsoo Sohn and Sang Hyun Lee

Sensors 2019, 19(1), 75; https://doi.org/10.3390/s19010075 - 25 Dec 2018

Cited by 24 | Viewed by 6127

Abstract

This paper proposes a distributed energy-efficient clustering protocol for wireless sensor networks (WSNs). Based on low-energy adaptive clustering hierarchy (LEACH) protocol, the proposed LEACH-eXtended Message-Passing (LEACH-XMP) substantially improves a cluster formation algorithm, which is critical for WSN operations. Unlike the previous approaches, a realistic non-linear energy consumption model is considered, which renders the clustering optimization highly nonlinear and challenging. To this end, a state-of-the-art message-passing approach is introduced to develop an efficient distributed algorithm. The main benefits of the proposed technique are its inherent nature of a distributed algorithm and the saving of computational load imposed for each node. Thus, it proves useful for a practical deployment. In addition, the proposed algorithm rapidly converges to a very accurate solution within a few iterations. Simulation results ensure that the proposed LEACH-XMP maximizes the network lifetime and outperforms existing techniques consistently. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Topology Control and Protocols in Sensor Network and IoT Applications)

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21 pages, 3598 KiB

Open AccessFeature PaperArticle

A Lightweight Anonymous Client–Server Authentication Scheme for the Internet of Things Scenario: LAuth

by Yuwen Chen, José-Fernán Martínez, Pedro Castillejo and Lourdes López

Sensors 2018, 18(11), 3695; https://doi.org/10.3390/s18113695 - 30 Oct 2018

Cited by 6 | Viewed by 3900

Abstract

The Internet of Things (IoT) connects different kinds of devices into a network, and enables two-way communication between devices. A large amount of data are collected by these devices and transmitted in this network, it is necessary to ensure secure communications between these devices, to make it impossible for an adversary to undermine this communication. To ensure secure communication, many authentication protocols have been proposed, in this study, a fully anonymous authentication scheme for the Internet of things scenario has been proposed, it enables the remote client to anonymously connect to the server and being serviced by the server. The proposed scheme has been verified by AVISPA and BAN Logic, and the result shows that it is safe. Besides, the simulation shows that the proposed scheme is more efficient in computation cost and communication cost. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Topology Control and Protocols in Sensor Network and IoT Applications)

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