A Game-Theoretic approach to connectivity restoration in Wireless Sensor and Actor Networks

Network partitioning can happen due to node failures in Wireless Sensor and Actor Networks (WSANs) that are deployed in inhospitable environments. In case of multiple actor damages, the network can be easily partitioned into several partitions which disrupt the communication among actors. In such a case, the nodes can relocate to re-establish the network connectivity. Such movement, however, should be minimized due to high energy cost for movement. In this paper, we tackle the problem of connectivity restoration in partitioned WSAN with minimized movement overhead by using a Game Theory based heuristic. The idea is based on the comparison of Nash equilibrium of the partitions. Specifically, the nodes staying in the partitions with greater equilibrium will be stationary while the nodes that are in partitions with the less equilibrium are relocated. In this way, partitions become a part of a federated partition and this federation process takes place until reaching the system-wide unique equilibrium. The effectiveness of the approach is evaluated under a variety of conditions and has been shown to be scalable and effective.