Effect of node centrality for IoT device selection in opportunistic networks: A comparison study

Opportunistic networks (Oppnets) are a subclass of delay-tolerant networks where communication opportunities (contacts) are intermittent and there is no need to establish an end-to-end link between communication nodes. The Internet of Things (IoT) presents the notion of large networks of connected devices, sharing data about their environments and creating a diverse ecosystem of sensors, actuators, and computing nodes. IoT networks consist of heterogeneous collections of resource constrained nodes that closely interact with their environment. There are different issues for these networks. One of them is the selection of IoT devices to carry out a task in Oppnets. In this work, we implement and compare two fuzzy-based systems (FBSs) for selecting the IoT device that completes the task in Oppnets. We call these systems FBSIDS1 and FBSIDS2. For FBSIDS1, we use three input parameters: IoT device storage, IoT device waiting time (IDWT), and IoT device remaining energy. The output parameter is IoT device selection decision. For FBSIDS2, we consider four input parameters by adding IoT device node centrality (IDNC) as a new parameter. Comparing the complexity of FBSIDS1 and FBSIDS2, FBSIDS2 is more complex than FBSIDS1. However, FBSIDS2 is more flexible and makes a better selection of IoT devices than FBSIDS1. The simulation results show that IoT device selection is increased up to 33% and 71% by increasing IDNC and IDWT, respectively, for FBSIDS2, and up to 46% and 61% by increasing IDWT and IDNC, respectively, for FBSIDS1.