Quantification of Node Significance Based on Overall Connectivity and Relative Position

In multi-hop wireless networks, such as wireless sensor networks, some nodes are more important than others due to their physical and topological significance, their degree of connectivity, communication load, or simply physical placement. Expressing their significance in a measurable way can be useful for communication protocols to assign particular roles to them. In this paper we propose a model for measuring node significance. The model modifies and extends Katz's Status Index which was first proposed to rank the status of people in a social network. In its original form, the Status Index is inadequate for our purpose, as it fails to take some of the key features of wireless sensor networks into consideration. Our modification addresses its limitations and puts the significance of each node in its proper context.