where WSNs are deployed in remote and inhospitable environments to collect data without human risk. It is envisioned that WSNs will consist of numerous miniaturized sensor nodes that report their findings to a base-station. WSNs are expected to be formed in the field in an ad-hoc manner. Due to the lack of infrastructure, the remote deployment, and the uncertainty about the inter-node communication links, a WSN is usually bootstrapped and managed in a decentralized manner