Assessing the Reliability of a Nanosensor Network for Monitoring Human Lung Cells

Recent advances in Nano-Science and Technology have provided opportunity to develop sensor nodes below 100 nm using various types of novel materials. These nanosensors have great potential in practical applications, such as measuring chemical compounds in concentrations as low as one part per billion, drug delivery, and disease diagnostics. Much research is devoted to designing and fabricating these nanosensors. However, the question of reliability is often ignored during the design process. Our research focuses on the reliability of one particular wireless nanosensor network (WNSN) that is used for monitoring human lung cells. The WNSN is probabilistically modeled and its reliability is analyzed under different scenarios. The main challenge here is how to define the reliability function for this particular WNSN. We attempt to do it by introducing a flexible definition of reliability that makes sense intuitively and allows for assessing the reliability function. Although this paper is motivated by one particular WNSN, our method of assessing reliability can also be used for any nanosensor where our proposed definition of reliability is reasonable.