A fault detecting algorithm based on spatio-temporal correlation in wireless sensor network

Wireless sensor networks are often deployed in harsh natural environment, in which sensor nodes are vulnerable and therefore produce wrong data. In order to solve this problem, the paper proposes a distributed fault detecting algorithm based on spatio-temporal correlation among data of adjacent nodes. By comparing the sample values of two nodes in short interval, the validity of the data is verified. This algorithm is applicable to the scenarios in which the distribution of environment variable is related to space, and at the same time in which the sample values of adjacent nodes are different according to the distance among them. The simulation experiment shows that the algorithm can efficiently detect errors in the network and very few errors are introduced. © 2011 IEEE.