reliability and availability evaluation of wireless sensor networks for industrial applications可靠性和可用性评估工业应用的无线传感器网络.pdfVIP

Sensors 2012, 12, 806-838; doi:10.3390/s120100806 OPEN ACCESS sensors ISSN 1424-8220 /journal/sensors Article Reliability and Availability Evaluation of Wireless Sensor Networks for Industrial Applications Ivanovitch Silva , Luiz Affonso Guedes , Paulo Portugal and Francisco Vasques Department of Computer Engineering and Automation, Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte, ´ Campus Universitario 59078-900, Natal, Brazil; E-Mail: affonso@dca.ufrn.br ISR, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Porto, Porto 4200-465, Portugal; E-Mail: pportugal@fe.up.pt IDMEC, Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Porto, Porto 4200-465, Portugal; E-Mail: vasques@fe.up.pt Author to whom correspondence should be addressed; E-Mail: ivan@dca.ufrn.br; Tel.: +55-84-3215-3771; Fax: +55-84-3215-3738. Received: 9 December 2011; in revised form: 5 January 2012 / Accepted: 10 January 2012 / Published: 12 January 2012 Abstract: Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) currently represent the best candidate to be adopted as the communication solution for the last mile connection in process control and monitoring applications in industrial environments. Most of these applications have stringent dependability (reliability and availability) requirements, as a system failure may result in economic losses, put people in danger or lead to environmental damages. Among the different type of faults that can lead to a system failure, permanent faults on network devices have