Overview

As we discussed in Chapter 2, the core functionality of a wireless sensor network depends on having a network topology that satisfies two important objectives: connectivity and coverage. Connectivity is essential to be able to move movement data between different points within the network, while coverage of the environment ensures that critical phenomena and events can be detected and monitored.

The problem of constructing an initial topology is of course the problem of node deployment. Beyond this, there are many scenarios in which topology control is desired. In its broadest sense, topology control can be defined as the process of configuring or reconfiguring a network's topology through tunable parameters after deployment. There are three major tunable parameters for topology control:

1. Node mobility: In WSNs consisting of mobile nodes, such as robotic sensor networks, both coverage and connectivity can be adapted by moving the nodes accordingly. We discussed the work that has been done on mobile node deployments and related topology configuration approaches in Chapter 2.

2. Transmission power control: In WSNs with static nodes, if the deployment density is already sufficient to guarantee the required level of coverage, the connectivity properties of the network can be adjusted by tuning the transmission power of the constituent nodes. We discussed these kinds of power control-based topology configuration techniques in Chapter 2 as well.