Formal Analysis of a Scheduling Algorithm for Wireless Sensor Networks

Abstract

In wireless sensor networks (WSNs), scheduling of the sensors is considered to be the most effective energy conservation mechanism. The random and unpredictable deployment of sensors in many WSNs in the open fields makes the sensor scheduling problem very challenging and randomized scheduling algorithms are thus used. The performance of these algorithms is usually analyzed using simulation techniques, which do not offer 100% accurate results. In this paper, we overcome this limitation by using higher-order-logic theorem proving to formally analyze the coverage-based random scheduling; a variant of the random scheduling algorithm designed for wireless sensor networks. Particularly, we aim at formalizing this coverage-based random scheduling within the probabilistic framework developed in the HOL theorem prover. We also formally reason about the expected values of coverage intensity, the upper bound on the total number of disjoint subsets, given expected coverage intensity, the lower bound on the total number of nodes and the average detection delay inside the network.

Towards the Formal Reliability Analysis of Oil and Gas Pipelines

“…Both model checking and theorem proving have been successfully used for the precise probabilistic analysis of a broad range of systems (e.g. [9,10,11,12,13]). However, to the best of our knowledge, no formal analysis approach has been used for the reliability analysis of oil and gas pipelines so far.…”

Heuristic strategies for assessing wireless sensor network resiliency: an event-based formal approach

“…Chen et al (2013) provide an extensive review of automated formal verification techniques of ad hoc routing protocols for WSN; Katelman et al (2008) propose a formallybased system redesign methodology used to redesign a version of the LMST topology protocol that ensures network connectivity under realistic deployment conditions. Elleuch et al (2011) apply a probabilistic framework to formally reason about the expected values of coverage intensity in a WSN. In both cases they only check the connectivity of the network without considering data delivery resiliency or connection resiliency to understand the tolerance degree of a WSN.…”

Formal Probabilistic Analysis of a Wireless Sensor Network for Forest Fire Detection

“…In this section, we give an overview of the formalization of the k-set randomized scheduling algorithm for WSNs using the HOL theorem prover [4]. We will build upon these foundations to formally verify the forest fire detection WSN properties in the next section.…”

“…In particular, we verify the coverage properties related to the expected values of coverage intensity, the upper bound on the total number of disjoint subsets, for a given coverage intensity, and the lower bound on the total number of nodes. This verification is based on our prior formalization of the k-set randomized algorithm, done in [4], and developed within the probabilistic framework [9] available in the HOL theorem prover.…”