Temporal and Spatial Nearest Neighbor Values Based Missing Data Imputation in Wireless Sensor Networks

Data missing is a common problem in wireless sensor networks. Currently, to ensure the performance of data processing, making imputation for the missing data is the most common method before getting into sensor data analysis. In this paper, the temporal and spatial nearest neighbor values-based missing data imputation (TSNN), a new imputation based on the temporal and spatial nearest neighbor values has been presented. First, four nearest neighbor values have been defined from the perspective of space and time dimensions as well as the geometrical and data distances, which are the bases of the algorithm that help to exploit the correlations among sensor data on the nodes with the regression tool. Next, the algorithm has been elaborated as well as two parameters, the best number of neighbors and spatial–temporal coefficient. Finally, the algorithm has been tested on an indoor and an outdoor wireless sensor network, and the result shows that TSNN is able to improve the accuracy of imputation and increase the number of cases that can be imputed effectively.