Optimal coverage multi-path scheduling scheme with multiple mobile sinks for WSNs

Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) are usually formed with many tiny sensors which are randomly deployed within sensing field for target monitoring. These sensors can transmit their monitored data to the sink in a multi-hop communication manner. However, the ‘hot spots’ problem will be caused since nodes near sink will consume more energy during forwarding. Recently, mobile sink based technology provides an alternative solution for the long-distance communication and sensor nodes only need to use single hop communication to the mobile sink during data transmission. Even though it is difficult to consider many network metrics such as sensor position, residual energy and coverage rate etc., it is still very important to schedule a reasonable moving trajectory for the mobile sink. In this paper, a novel trajectory scheduling method based on coverage rate for multiple mobile sinks (TSCR-M) is presented especially for large-scale WSNs. An improved particle swarm optimization (PSO) combined with mutation operator is introduced to search the parking positions with optimal coverage rate. Then the genetic algorithm (GA) is adopted to schedule the moving trajectory for multiple mobile sinks. Extensive simulations are performed to validate the performance of our proposed method

CogCell: Cognitive Interplay between 60GHz Picocells and 2.4/5GHz Hotspots in the 5G Era

Rapid proliferation of wireless communication devices and the emergence of a variety of new applications have triggered investigations into next-generation mobile broadband systems, i.e., 5G. Legacy 2G--4G systems covering large areas were envisioned to serve both indoor and outdoor environments. However, in the 5G-era, 80\% of overall traffic is expected to be generated in indoors. Hence, the current approach of macro-cell mobile network, where there is no differentiation between indoors and outdoors, needs to be reconsidered. We envision 60\,GHz mmWave picocell architecture to support high-speed indoor and hotspot communications. We envisage the 5G indoor network as a combination of-, and interplay between, 2.4/5\,GHz having robust coverage and 60\,GHz links offering high datarate. This requires an intelligent coordination and cooperation. We propose 60\,GHz picocellular network architecture, called CogCell, leveraging the ubiquitous WiFi. We propose to use 60\,GHz for the data plane and 2.4/5GHz for the control plane. The hybrid network architecture considers an opportunistic fall-back to 2.4/5\,GHz in case of poor connectivity in the 60\,GHz domain. Further, to avoid the frequent re-beamforming in 60\,GHz directional links due to mobility, we propose a cognitive module -- a sensor-assisted intelligent beam switching procedure -- which reduces the communication overhead. We believe that the CogCell concept will help future indoor communications and possibly outdoor hotspots, where mobile stations and access points collaborate with each other to improve the user experience.Comment: 14 PAGES in IEEE Communications Magazine, Special issue on Emerging Applications, Services and Engineering for Cognitive Cellular Systems (EASE4CCS), July 201

Snapshots of the EYES project

The EYES project (IST-2001-34734) is a three years European research project on self-organizing and collaborative energy-efficient sensor networks. It addresses the convergence of distributed information processing, wireless communications, and mobile computing. The goal of the project is to develop the architecture and the technology which enables the creation of a new generation of sensors that can effectively network together so as to provide a flexible platform for the support of a large variety of mobile sensor network applications. This paper provides a broad overview of the EYES project and highlights some approaches and results of the architecture