An Intelligent Fault Tolerant Data Routing Scheme for Wireless Sensor Network-Assisted Industrial Internet of Things

Safety is a major concern for Industrial 4.0 where different physical parameters are monitored for avoiding uncertain events in the industry. In industries, natural calamities like fire and leakage of harmful gases can cause huge damage to life and property. An Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) is used to monitor such natural calamities and take timely prompt actions. However, sensors in the IIoT are vulnerable to failures due to energy depletion and hardware malfunctioning. It significantly reduces the reliability of the network. This article proposes an intelligent fault-tolerant scheme where different faults within the wireless sensor network-assisted IIoT such as node fault and link fault are detected and tolerated in a timely manner. It significantly improves the reliability of the network. Extensive simulations show the out-performance of the proposed scheme in terms of average packet delivery, energy consumption, throughput, network lifetime, communication delay, and recovery speed.

I. Introduction

Nowadays, Industrial 4.0 has become a hot topic of research as it has revolutionized the industrial sector. In Industrial 4.0, different cutting edge technologies such as Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), industrial wireless sensor networks (IWSNs), and machine learning are used for the advancement and automation of traditional industrial processes [1]. Industry 4.0 introduces smart machines such as autonomous robots, expert systems, and intelligent assistants. Smart machines significantly increase the productivity and safety of an industry. As per the current report [2], the global smart machine market will reach $32.5 billion by 2027. In this industrial revolution, heterogeneous sensors are deployed to monitor different physical parameters of the industrial environment. Different sensor nodes form a wireless sensor network that can directly assist different IIoT applications. Intelligent wireless sensor networks (WSNs) find different applications in Industry 4.0 including healthcare [3], safety [4], and smart manufacturing [5]. Intelligence is introduced in IIoT with the use of artificial intelligence (AI). As per the Internet of Things (IoT) Tech news report [6], the annual growth rate of incorporation of AI in IIoT is expected to be 57.2% over the next five years.