Distributed Connectivity Control in Bio-Hybrid Wireless Sensor Networks

Marko Krizmancic, Tim-Lucas Rabbel, Eduard Buss, Mostafa Wahby, Heiko Hamann, Stjepan Bogdan

Abstract: In the WatchPlant project, we aim to develop a bio-hybrid wireless sensor network (WSN) that uses natural plants as sensors for a variety of environmental conditions. One of the major challenges in such a system is managing connectivity while balancing higher data throughput with energy conservation. In this work, connectivity is controlled through the so-called Fiedler value, the second smallest eigenvalue of the Laplacian of the communication graph. We propose a distributed connectivity control method that relies on consensus-based topology estimation, and in which links in the graph are added or removed according to the values of the Fiedler eigenvector obtained from the estimated adjacency matrix. The proposed strategy for estimating and maintaining connectivity was validated in a simulation and in a physical proof-of-concept WSN consisting of several single-board mini-computers.