Reliability Evaluation for Chain Routing Protocols in Wireless Sensor Networks Using Reliability Block Diagram

There are many different fields in which wireless sensor networks (WSNs) can be used such as environmental monitoring, healthcare, military, and security. Due to the vulnerability of WSNs, reliability is a critical concern. Evaluation of a WSN’s reliability is essential during the design process and when evaluating WSNs’ performance. Current research uses the reliability block diagram (RBD) technique, based on component functioning or failure state, to evaluate reliability. In this study, a new methodology-based RBD, to calculate the energy reliability of various proposed chain models in WSNs, is presented. A new method called D-Chain is proposed, to form the chain starting from the nearest node to the base station (BS) and to choose the chain head based on the minimum distance D, and Q-Chain is proposed, to form the chain starting from the farthest node from the BS and select the head based on the maximum weight, Q. Each chain has three different arrangements: single chain/single-hop, multi-chain/single-hop, and multi-chain/multi-hop. Moreover, we applied dynamic leader nodes to all of the models mentioned. The simulation results indicate that the multi Q-Chain/single-hop has the best performance, while the single D-Chain has the least reliability in all situations. In the grid scenario, multi Q-Chain/single-hop achieved better average reliability, 11.12 times greater than multi D-Chain/single-hop. On the other hand, multi Q-Chain/single-hop achieved 6.38 times better average reliability than multi D-Chain/single-hop, in a random scenario.