Availability-Aware Multiobjective Task Allocation Algorithm for Internet of Things Networks

Node failures are known to be among the generic problems in Internet of Things (IoT) networks. These failures can be caused by communication disturbances, battery depletion, or even hardware faults. The larger the IoT network and the larger the task to be executed in the network, the higher is the probability of a node failure in the relevant part of the network. This article studies the node failures and proposes a new task allocation algorithm based on multiobjective optimization to address this issue. This article proposes a specialized archive-selection mechanism to enhance diversity in the search space of the so-called multiobjective task allocation algorithm (MOTA). High diversity in the archive allows a reliable selection of alternative task assignments in the case of node failures in the IoT network. We evaluate the performance of the proposed approach regarding the network lifetime, its latency, and its availability, using a network simulation model and compare the results with the baseline MOTA and the dynamic task allocation scheduler (DTAS). The results show that the proposed approach provides significant performance improvements over the existing algorithms, especially in scenarios with high task-to-node ratios.