Optimal transmission policy derivation for IoNT flow-guided nano-sensor networks

© 2014 IEEE.By empowering the Internet of Things (IoT) with nanoscale communications, thousands of small devices, called nano-nodes, are enabled to monitor complex environments in a nonintrusive way, giving rise to the Internet of Nano-Things (IoNT) paradigm. It is in one of these very complex and critical environments, the human cardiovascular system, where IoNT might stand out. However, the supervision of human health poses significant challenges: first, to reduce costs and allow in vivo monitoring nano-sensor networks, the number of deployed nano-routers must be limited, which could cause nano-nodes to undergo long out-of-coverage periods. Lastly, nano-nodes rely on harvested energy from the medium, which severely reduces the number of potential transmissions. To overcome these two problems, smart policies that direct devices on how to proceed with sensed events are crucial. In this line, we propose a generic Markov decision process (MDP) model which can be exploited to derive optimal transmission policies that are easily employed by nano-nodes. These policies maximize nano-node throughput and cope with the energy and coverage problems. We have also run a set of simulations to validate our proposal and to compare it to other alternative policies. Results reveal that: 1) our policy systematically outperforms the rest of policies by a large margin and 2) precision in placing nano-routers and average distance between them strongly affect the nano-network performance. The Python code for the MDP model and simulations has been programmed to be easily adaptable to researchers' needs, making it easier for future IoNT works to add intelligence to the network.