Redesign of the LMST Wireless Sensor Protocol through Formal Modeling and Statistical Model Checking

The local minimum spanning tree (LMST) topology control protocol tries to maintain connectivity in an ad-hoc wireless sensor network while minimizing power consumption and maximizing data bandwidth. Our formal, statistical model checking analysis of LMST under realistic deployment conditions shows that the invariant of maintaining network connectivity is easily lost. We then propose a formally-based system redesign methodology in which quantitative temporal logic formulas and further statistical model checking can be used to identify the causes of bugs, and to reach a correct system redesign. We show this methodology effective in the redesign of a version of LMST that ensures network connectivity under realistic deployment conditions.