Abstract : Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) systems have been usedfor several applications from target tracking to environment mon-itoring. Recently, there has been increased interest in the designof WSN protocols for delay-sensitive applications, such as mili-tary surveillance, health monitoring, and infrastructure security.However, due to the strict resource constraints of the sensor nodes,WSNs pose critical challenges for network protocol design for reli-able communications with delay constraints. Biologically inspiredmodeling techniques have received considerable attention for theirrobustness, scalability, and adaptability with simple local interac-tions and limited information. In this paper, we apply gene regula-tory networks (GRNs) principles to the WSN system and proposea new GRN model for decentralized node coordination to achieveenergy saving while meeting delay requirements. Using control the-ory, we provide conditions of system parameters to ensure systemconvergence and stability. Simulation results indicate that the pro-posed scheme achieves superior performance with energy savingsas well as desirable delay guarantees compared with other well-known schemes.
Index terms : Biologically-inspired algorithm, delay constraints, energy saving, node coordination, wireless sensor systems.