Node centrality in wireless sensor networks: Importance, applications and advances

Protocols for wireless sensor network are based upon the application for which the network is deployed for. It is also the individual node characteristics which may lead to different network characteristics as well as protocols. Centrality measure defines the importance and role of a node within a network. It also helps in calculating its importance and relationship with its neighboring nodes. Hence centrality measures may help in resolving various inherent problems and developing efficient algorithms for wireless sensor networks. In this paper we present various graph centrality measures that are applicable to wireless sensor networks. The utility and importance of these graph centrality measures have also been discussed. Further we have proposed a new graph centrality measure named as cluster centrality for WSNs.