Delay analysis of network coding in linear wireless sensor networks

In this work we analytically calculate the gain, in terms of packet delay, obtained by the use of network coding in linear multi-hop wireless sensor network topologies. Moreover we calculate the exact packet delay (from the packet generation time to the time it is delivered to the sink nodes) as a function of the location of the source sensor node within the linear network. We demonstrate that network coding can reduce the total packet delivery delay by 48 %. The derived packet delay distribution formulas have been verified by simulations and can provide a benchmark for the delay performance of linear sensor networks. Our results will be used for the design of more efficient network coding based scheduling and routing algorithms in wireless sensor networks used for Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) of linear structures, such as bridges, tunes and pipelines.