Evaluation of the functionality of mobile wireless sensor networks using stochastic reward nets

In this paper, the functionality of mobile wireless sensor networks (MWSNs) is analytically modeled and evaluated using stochastic reward nets (SRNs). In MWSNs, mobile nodes can move around to collect data from the environment and send it to the sink. These nodes use a limited battery as the power source that can be charged according to environmental conditions. If the battery does not have enough power, the mobile node is disabled, and therefore it cannot move around and collect/send data. The data collected by the nodes will expire if they are not received by the sink in a timely manner. In order to avoid data expiration, mobile nodes can send their data to other nodes around themselves, but this also increases the power consumption because of further communication. Therefore, environmental and movement conditions, and communication between nodes can have a major impact on the functionality of the MWSNs. These challenges are considered in the paper and the proposed models analyze the impact of different environmental, communication, and movement conditions on the functionality of MWSNs. The results obtained from the proposed models demonstrate that the environmental and movement conditions have a greater impact on system functionality than the communication conditions.