The impact of a realistic packet traffic model on the performance of surveillance wireless sensor networks

It is quite common to see that classical periodic or Poisson packet traffic models are used for evaluating the performance of wireless sensor networks (WSNs). However, these models may not be appropriate for modeling the data traffic resulting from a particular application. Furthermore, they may be overestimating the performance of a WSN. In this paper, we show the significance of using a realistic and application-specific packet traffic model by comparing the performance of a well-known WSN protocol under the Surveillance WSN packet traffic model (SPTM), as well as under periodic and binomial traffic models. A packet traffic framework specific to surveillance applications is proposed which is then used for deriving SPTM analytically. In order to be adaptable and flexible, SPTM incorporates a probabilistic and parametric sensor detection model. Simulation results show that to employ an application-specific packet traffic model has significant impact on the performance evaluation of the WSN and ordinary traffic models may overestimate the capacity of the WSN. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.