DAIM: A Distributed Algorithm for Isolating Malfunctioning Nodes in Wireless Sensor Networks

It has been identified that as complexity of computing and communication devices increases, fault-tolerance will gain more and more importance. Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) are exceptionally complex distributed systems where a variety of components interact in a complex way and should therefore help narrow down failures and diagnose their causes, as much as possible, with minimal physical access and interactivity. In this paper, we present an algorithm for isolating malfunctioning nodes in WSNs and provide two parallel variants of it: Naive and Greedy. The algorithm is based on the idea that a covered node can be turned off and that turning off a malfunctioning node causes the WSN to function properly. The experiments we conducted show that the Naive Approach is very precise in locating malfunctioning nodes whereas the Greedy Approach is very fast in finding a cover free of such nodes.