Improving wireless sensor networks performance through epidemic model

ABSTRACT

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) encounter a critical challenge of ‘Network Security’ due to extreme operational constraints. The origin of the challenge begins with the entry of worms in the wireless network. Just one infected node is enough to spread the worms across the entire network. The infected node rapidly infects the neighbouring nodes in an unstoppable manner. In this paper, a mathematical model is proposed based on epidemic theory. It is an improvement of the Susceptible-Infectious-Recovered-Susceptible (SIRS) and Susceptible-Exposed-Infectious-Susceptible (SEIS) model. We propose Susceptible-Exposed-Infectious-Recovered-Susceptible (SEIRS) model that overcomes the drawbacks of existing models. The proposed ameliorated model includes a finite communication radius and the associated node density. We obtain basic reproduction number which determines the local and global propagation dynamics of worm in the WSNs. Also, we deduce expression for threshold for node density and communication radius. We investigated the control mechanism against worm propagation. We compare the proposed model with various existing models and evaluate its performance on the basis of various performance metrics. The study confirms melioration in the vital aspects (security, network reliability, transmission efficiency, energy efficiency) for WSNs. The proposed SEIRS model provides an improved technique to restraint worms’ transmission in comparison to the existing models.

KEYWORDS:

• Basic reproduction number
• control technique
• stability
• wireless sensor networks
• equilibrium

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.