Design Issues in Constructing Chain Oriented Logical Topology for Wireless Sensor Networks and a Solution

An optimised logical topology facilitates the sensors of a network to communicate with each other with little overheads, lower energy consumption, and reduced latency. It also lengthens the lifetime of the network, provides scalability, and increases reliability in communications. However, designing an optimal logical topology for wireless sensor networks requires considering numerous factors. In this paper, we elaborately discuss these design issues and challenges. We also present a chain oriented logical topology, which offers solutions to those design issues. The proposed logical topology provides not only a communication abstraction, but also node management and resource management. The performance of the proposed topology is compared with other topologies with respect to energy consumptions, latency, and lifetime of the network.