Performance Evaluation of Wireless Sensor Networks for Event-Detection with Shadowing-Induced Radio Irregularities

In this paper, we study a particular application of wireless sensor networks for event-detection and tracking. In this kind of application, the transport of data is simplified, and guaranteeing a minimum number of packets at the monitoring node is the only constraint on the performance of the sensor network. This minimum number of packets is called event-reliability. Contrary to other studies on the subject, here we consider the behavior of such a network in presence of a realistic radio model, such as the shadowing of the radio signal. With this setting, we extend our previous analysis of the event-reliability approach for the transport of data. In particular, both regular and random networks are considered. The contribute of this work is to show via simulations that, in the presence of randomness or irregularities in the radio channel, the event-reliability can be jeopardized, that is the constraint on the minimum number of packets at the sink node could not be satisfied