A distributed multi-agent approach for resilient supervision over a IPv6 WSAN infrastructure

Wireless Sensor and Actuator Networks has become an important area of research. They can provide flexibility, low operational and maintenance costs and they are inherently scalable. In the realm of Internet of Things the majority of devices is able to communicate with one another, and in some cases they can be deployed with an IP address. This feature is undoubtedly very beneficial in wireless sensor and actuator networks applications, such as monitoring and control systems. However, this kind of communication infrastructure is rather challenging as it can compromise the overall system performance due to several factors, namely outliers, intermittent communication breakdown or security issues. In order to improve the overall resilience of the system, this work proposes a distributed hierarchical multi-agent architecture implemented over a IPv6 communication infrastructure. The Contiki Operating System and RPL routing protocol were used together to provide a IPv6 based communication between nodes and an external network. Experimental results collected from a laboratory IPv6 based WSAN test-bed, show the relevance and benefits of the proposed methodology to cope with communication loss between nodes and the server.