Secure and reliable connectivity in heterogeneous wireless sensor networks

TL;DR

This paper analyzes the connectivity of heterogeneous wireless sensor networks secured by a random key scheme, considering unreliable channels modeled as on/off, and establishes conditions for high-probability k-connectivity.

Contribution

It introduces a zero-one law for k-connectivity in heterogeneous sensor networks with unreliable channels, extending previous models to more realistic scenarios.

Findings

Derived zero-one laws for network connectivity

Provided numerical validation for finite networks

Established conditions for robust network design

Abstract

We consider wireless sensor networks secured by the heterogeneous random key predistribution scheme under an on/off channel model. The heterogeneous random key predistribution scheme considers the case when the network includes sensor nodes with varying levels of resources, features, or connectivity requirements; e.g., regular nodes vs. cluster heads, but does not incorporate the fact that wireless channel are unreliable. To capture the unreliability of the wireless medium, we use an on/off channel model; wherein, each wireless channel is either on (with probability $\alpha$) or off (with probability $1-\alpha$) independently. We present conditions (in the form of zero-one laws) on how to scale the parameters of the network model so that with high probability the network is $k$-connected, i.e., the network remains connected even if any $k-1$ nodes fail or leave the network. We also present numerical results to support these conditions in the finite-node regime.