A new health prediction model for a sensor network based on belief rule base with attribute reliability

Health prediction plays an essential role in improving the reliability of a sensor network by guiding the network maintenance. However, affected by interference factors in the real operational environment, the reliability of the monitoring information about the sensor network tends to decline, which affects the health prediction accuracy. Furthermore, the lack of monitoring information and high complexity of the network increase the difficulty of health prediction. To solve these three problems, this paper proposes a new sensor network health prediction model based on the belief rule base model with attribute reliability (BRB-r). The BRB-r model is an expert system that fully considers the qualitative knowledge and quantitative data of the sensor network. In addition, it can address the fuzziness and nondeterminacy of this qualitative knowledge. In the new model, the unreliable monitoring information of the sensor network is handled by the attribute reliability mechanism. The reliability of the sensor is calculated by the average distance method. Due to the effect of the fuzziness and nondeterminacy of expert knowledge, the health status of the sensor network cannot be accurately estimated by the initial health prediction model. Consequently, the optimization model for the health prediction model is established. Finally, a case study regarding a sensor network for oil storage tanks is conducted, and the validity of this method is demonstrated.