IPL: An Intelligent, Predefined, and Lightweight Recovery Scheme for Node Failures in Topology-Aware Software-Defined Wireless Sensor Networks

Abstract

Software-defined wireless sensor networks (SDWSNs) improve network programmability and centralized control, but maintaining connectivity under node and link failures remains difficult because of node mobility, limited energy, and dynamic topology changes. This study proposes IPL, an Intelligent, Predefined, and Lightweight recovery framework for topology-aware SDWSNs. The framework integrates three coordinated mechanisms: predictive link-lifetime estimation using energy and mobility parameters, energy-aware target positioning through a weighted midpoint strategy, and ring-based coordination among mobile IPL relay nodes for deterministic and low-overhead recovery. IPL is designed to handle both isolated and multiple concurrent failures while reducing controller burden and avoiding expensive global recomputation. The method was evaluated in a Mininet/Floodlight-based SDWSN environment with 150 nodes under identical settings against four benchmark schemes: IFT, Fed-TSN, P4Neighbor, and LCD. Across varying failure conditions, IPL consistently achieved faster recovery and better communication reliability. Relative to the baselines, the proposed method reduced recovery time by up to 26%, lowered latency by up to 27%, decreased energy consumption by up to 18%, improved packet delivery ratio by up to 19%, increased recovery success rate by up to 17%, and extended network lifetime by up to 19%. These gains arise from proactive link monitoring, rapid relay repositioning, and structured recovery coordination. Overall, IPL offers an efficient and scalable recovery solution for dynamic SDWSNs, particularly in environments with moderate failure rates, while highlighting opportunities for future enhancement through adaptive relay allocation and improved mobility-aware prediction.