Applying the Small World Concepts in the Design of Heterogeneous Wireless Sensor Networks

We propose a model to design heterogeneous sensor network topologies with small world features based on the Kleinberg model. The proposed model considers the data communication flow in this kind of network to create network shortcuts toward the sink node in a way that the communication between the sink and the sensor nodes is optimized. The end-points of these shortcuts are nodes with more powerful hardware, leading to a heterogeneous sensor network. Simulation results show that, when the shortcuts are created toward the sink node, with a few powerful sensors, the network presents better small world features and the latency is reduced in the data communication when compared with the original Kleinberg model.