Decision Making in a Distributed Sensor Network

Given a binary output sensor network of a particular density and a random distribution, we examine the effects of simple malfunctioning sensor nodes on the abi lity of the network to reach a timely and correct decision. We examine the effects of malfunctioning sen sor frequency and distribution, and network decision-making thresholds on the efficacy of the decisionmaking process. Based on repeated simulations, we are able to give recommendations on how to tune the d esign parameters of a sensor network to fit a specific application when the cost of false positives and f lse negatives can be estimated.