ABSTRACT
Self-healing-the ability of a network to effectively combat coverage and routing holes and network disconnection-represents one of the most desired operational properties of large-scale wireless sensor networks (WSNs). In this chapter, we look at the advantages and inherent challenges of selfhealing through the deployment of mobile nodes. We show that although bridging a routing hole by means of a mobile node provides unquestionable benefits in terms of hole confinement and reduced transmission delays, the deployment of the mobile is often hard to justify from the perspective of overall energy consumption. In particular, we prove that in case of circular-and rectangular-shaped
holes, the deployment of a mobile bridge provides very questionable, if any, energy benefit for the network. Consequently, we demonstrate the need to jointly consider all of the relevant parameters (energy, transmission delay, and node failure), when decidingwhether or where to deploy themobile.
