A distributed algorithm for restoring actor-actor connectivity in wireless sensor and actor networks

Wireless sensor and actor networks (WSANs) consist of powerful actors and resource constraint sensors which are linked together by wireless networks. In some applications, actors must communicate with each other to take appropriate decisions and make coordinated actions. Actor-actor network connectivity is vital to networks in such applications. Since WSAN applications are mostly deployed in harsh environments, actor nodes may fail and partition their network. This paper proposes a distributed algorithm to restore actor-actor connectivity upon the failure of any actors by identifying critical actors and use of sensor channel. The proposed algorithm minimizes the movements of each actor on one hand and total actors' movements on the other hand. If the failed actor is a critical node, its neighborhood actors would be relocated in a coordinated way to reconnect the actor network. The effectiveness of the proposed approach has been validated through simulation experiments and the results show nearly 33% improvement in total movement of actors compared to related works.