An Energy Efficient, Load Balancing, and Reliable Routing Protocol for Wireless Sensor Networks

AN ENERGY EFFICIENT, LOAD BALANCING, AND RELIABLE ROUTING PROTOCOL FOR WIRELESS SENSOR NETWORKS by Kamil Samara The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, 2016 Under the Supervision of Professor Hossein Hosseini The Internet of Things (IoT) is shaping the future of Computer Networks and Computing in general, and it is gaining ground very rapidly. The whole idea has originated from the pervasive presence of a variety of things or objects equipped with the internet connectivity. These devices are becoming cheap and ubiquitous, at the same time more powerful and smaller with a variety of onboard sensors. All these factors with the availability of unique addressing, provided by the IPv6, has made these devices capable of collaborating with each other to accomplish common tasks. Mobile AdHoc Networks (MANETS) and Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) in particular play a major role in the backbone of IoT. Routing in Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) has been a challenging task for researchers in the last several years because the conventional routing algorithms, such as the ones used in IP-based networks, are not well suited for WSNs because these conventional routing algorithms heavily rely on large routing tables that need to be updated periodically. The size of a WSN could range from hundreds to tens of thousands of nodes, which will make routing tables’ size very large. Managing large routing tables is not feasible in WSNs due to the limitations of resources. The directed diffusion algorithm is a well-known routing algorithm for Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs). The directed diffusion algorithm saves energy by sending data packets hop by hop and by enforcing paths to avoid flooding. The directed diffusion algorithm does not attempt to find the best or healthier paths (healthier paths are paths that use less total energy than others and avoid critical nodes). Hence the directed diffusion algorithm could be improved by enforcing the use of healthier paths, which will result in less power consumption. We propose an efficient routing protocol for WSNs that gives preference to the healthier paths based on the criteria of the total energy available on the path, the path length, and the avoidance of critical nodes. This preference is achieved by collecting information about the available paths and then using non-incremental machine learning to enforce path(s) that meet our criteria. In addition to preferring healthier paths, our protocol provides Quality of Service (QoS) features through the implementation of differentiated services, where packets are classified as critical, urgent, and normal, as defined later in this work. Based on this classification, different packets are assigned different priority and resources. This process results in higher reliability for the delivery of data, and shorter delivery delay for the urgent and critical packets. This research includes the implementation of our protocol using a Castalia Simulator. Our simulation compares the performance of our protocol with that of the directed diffusion algorithm. The comparison was made on the following aspects: • Energy consumption • Reliable delivery • Load balancing • Network lifetime • Quality of service Simulation results did not point out a significant difference in performance between the proposed protocol and the directed diffusion algorithm in smaller networks. However, when the network’s size started to increase the results showed better performance by the proposed protocol

Cross-layer design of multi-hop wireless networks

MULTI -hop wireless networks are usually defined as a collection of nodes equipped with radio transmitters, which not only have the capability to communicate each other in a multi-hop fashion, but also to route each others’ data packets. The distributed nature of such networks makes them suitable for a variety of applications where there are no assumed reliable central entities, or controllers, and may significantly improve the scalability issues of conventional single-hop wireless networks. This Ph.D. dissertation mainly investigates two aspects of the research issues related to the efficient multi-hop wireless networks design, namely: (a) network protocols and (b) network management, both in cross-layer design paradigms to ensure the notion of service quality, such as quality of service (QoS) in wireless mesh networks (WMNs) for backhaul applications and quality of information (QoI) in wireless sensor networks (WSNs) for sensing tasks. Throughout the presentation of this Ph.D. dissertation, different network settings are used as illustrative examples, however the proposed algorithms, methodologies, protocols, and models are not restricted in the considered networks, but rather have wide applicability. First, this dissertation proposes a cross-layer design framework integrating a distributed proportional-fair scheduler and a QoS routing algorithm, while using WMNs as an illustrative example. The proposed approach has significant performance gain compared with other network protocols. Second, this dissertation proposes a generic admission control methodology for any packet network, wired and wireless, by modeling the network as a black box, and using a generic mathematical 0. Abstract 3 function and Taylor expansion to capture the admission impact. Third, this dissertation further enhances the previous designs by proposing a negotiation process, to bridge the applications’ service quality demands and the resource management, while using WSNs as an illustrative example. This approach allows the negotiation among different service classes and WSN resource allocations to reach the optimal operational status. Finally, the guarantees of the service quality are extended to the environment of multiple, disconnected, mobile subnetworks, where the question of how to maintain communications using dynamically controlled, unmanned data ferries is investigated

Internet of Things-aided Smart Grid: Technologies, Architectures, Applications, Prototypes, and Future Research Directions

Traditional power grids are being transformed into Smart Grids (SGs) to address the issues in existing power system due to uni-directional information flow, energy wastage, growing energy demand, reliability and security. SGs offer bi-directional energy flow between service providers and consumers, involving power generation, transmission, distribution and utilization systems. SGs employ various devices for the monitoring, analysis and control of the grid, deployed at power plants, distribution centers and in consumers' premises in a very large number. Hence, an SG requires connectivity, automation and the tracking of such devices. This is achieved with the help of Internet of Things (IoT). IoT helps SG systems to support various network functions throughout the generation, transmission, distribution and consumption of energy by incorporating IoT devices (such as sensors, actuators and smart meters), as well as by providing the connectivity, automation and tracking for such devices. In this paper, we provide a comprehensive survey on IoT-aided SG systems, which includes the existing architectures, applications and prototypes of IoT-aided SG systems. This survey also highlights the open issues, challenges and future research directions for IoT-aided SG systems

A critical analysis of research potential, challenges and future directives in industrial wireless sensor networks

In recent years, Industrial Wireless Sensor Networks (IWSNs) have emerged as an important research theme with applications spanning a wide range of industries including automation, monitoring, process control, feedback systems and automotive. Wide scope of IWSNs applications ranging from small production units, large oil and gas industries to nuclear fission control, enables a fast-paced research in this field. Though IWSNs offer advantages of low cost, flexibility, scalability, self-healing, easy deployment and reformation, yet they pose certain limitations on available potential and introduce challenges on multiple fronts due to their susceptibility to highly complex and uncertain industrial environments. In this paper a detailed discussion on design objectives, challenges and solutions, for IWSNs, are presented. A careful evaluation of industrial systems, deadlines and possible hazards in industrial atmosphere are discussed. The paper also presents a thorough review of the existing standards and industrial protocols and gives a critical evaluation of potential of these standards and protocols along with a detailed discussion on available hardware platforms, specific industrial energy harvesting techniques and their capabilities. The paper lists main service providers for IWSNs solutions and gives insight of future trends and research gaps in the field of IWSNs

A Survey of System Architecture Requirements for Health Care-Based Wireless Sensor Networks

Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) have emerged as a viable technology for a vast number of applications, including health care applications. To best support these health care applications, WSN technology can be adopted for the design of practical Health Care WSNs (HCWSNs) that support the key system architecture requirements of reliable communication, node mobility support, multicast technology, energy efficiency, and the timely delivery of data. Work in the literature mostly focuses on the physical design of the HCWSNs (e.g., wearable sensors, in vivo embedded sensors, et cetera). However, work towards enhancing the communication layers (i.e., routing, medium access control, et cetera) to improve HCWSN performance is largely lacking. In this paper, the information gleaned from an extensive literature survey is shared in an effort to fortify the knowledge base for the communication aspect of HCWSNs. We highlight the major currently existing prototype HCWSNs and also provide the details of their routing protocol characteristics. We also explore the current state of the art in medium access control (MAC) protocols for WSNs, for the purpose of seeking an energy efficient solution that is robust to mobility and delivers data in a timely fashion. Furthermore, we review a number of reliable transport layer protocols, including a network coding based protocol from the literature, that are potentially suitable for delivering end-to-end reliability of data transmitted in HCWSNs. We identify the advantages and disadvantages of the reviewed MAC, routing, and transport layer protocols as they pertain to the design and implementation of a HCWSN. The findings from this literature survey will serve as a useful foundation for designing a reliable HCWSN and also contribute to the development and evaluation of protocols for improving the performance of future HCWSNs. Open issues that required further investigations are highlighted

Lifetime Maximization of Sensor Networks Through Optimal Data Collection Scheduling of Mobile Sink

The problem of maximizing lifetime of a sensor network is still challenging mainly due to the stringent delay-deadline of real-time applications and heterogeneity of sensor devices. The problem is further complicated when the network contains many obstacles. In maximizing network lifetime, existing literature works either merely address issues of application delay-deadline and presence of obstacles, or analyze primitive data collection approaches for such an environment. In this paper, we formulate optimal data collection schedule of a mobile sink in an obstructed sensor network as a mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) problem. The proposed data collection scheduling finds an optimal set of rendezvous nodes over a preformed Starfish routing backbone, and corresponding sojourn duration so as to maximize the network lifetime while maintaining delay-deadline constraint in an obstructed network. The proposed Starfish-scheduling ensures a loop-free traveling path for a mobile sink across the network. The results of performance evaluation, performed in network simulator-2, depict the suitability of Starfish scheduling as it outperforms state-of-the-art-works in terms of extending network lifetime and data delivery throughput as well as reducing average end-to-end delay

Thirty Years of Machine Learning: The Road to Pareto-Optimal Wireless Networks

Future wireless networks have a substantial potential in terms of supporting a broad range of complex compelling applications both in military and civilian fields, where the users are able to enjoy high-rate, low-latency, low-cost and reliable information services. Achieving this ambitious goal requires new radio techniques for adaptive learning and intelligent decision making because of the complex heterogeneous nature of the network structures and wireless services. Machine learning (ML) algorithms have great success in supporting big data analytics, efficient parameter estimation and interactive decision making. Hence, in this article, we review the thirty-year history of ML by elaborating on supervised learning, unsupervised learning, reinforcement learning and deep learning. Furthermore, we investigate their employment in the compelling applications of wireless networks, including heterogeneous networks (HetNets), cognitive radios (CR), Internet of things (IoT), machine to machine networks (M2M), and so on. This article aims for assisting the readers in clarifying the motivation and methodology of the various ML algorithms, so as to invoke them for hitherto unexplored services as well as scenarios of future wireless networks.Comment: 46 pages, 22 fig

Telecommunications Networks

This book guides readers through the basics of rapidly emerging networks to more advanced concepts and future expectations of Telecommunications Networks. It identifies and examines the most pressing research issues in Telecommunications and it contains chapters written by leading researchers, academics and industry professionals. Telecommunications Networks - Current Status and Future Trends covers surveys of recent publications that investigate key areas of interest such as: IMS, eTOM, 3G/4G, optimization problems, modeling, simulation, quality of service, etc. This book, that is suitable for both PhD and master students, is organized into six sections: New Generation Networks, Quality of Services, Sensor Networks, Telecommunications, Traffic Engineering and Routing

Unified Role Assignment Framework For Wireless Sensor Networks

Wireless sensor networks are made possible by the continuing improvements in embedded sensor, VLSI, and wireless radio technologies. Currently, one of the important challenges in sensor networks is the design of a systematic network management framework that allows localized and collaborative resource control uniformly across all application services such as sensing, monitoring, tracking, data aggregation, and routing. The research in wireless sensor networks is currently oriented toward a cross-layer network abstraction that supports appropriate fine or course grained resource controls for energy efficiency. In that regard, we have designed a unified role-based service paradigm for wireless sensor networks. We pursue this by first developing a Role-based Hierarchical Self-Organization (RBSHO) protocol that organizes a connected dominating set (CDS) of nodes called dominators. This is done by hierarchically selecting nodes that possess cumulatively high energy, connectivity, and sensing capabilities in their local neighborhood. The RBHSO protocol then assigns specific tasks such as sensing, coordination, and routing to appropriate dominators that end up playing a certain role in the network. Roles, though abstract and implicit, expose role-specific resource controls by way of role assignment and scheduling. Based on this concept, we have designed a Unified Role-Assignment Framework (URAF) to model application services as roles played by local in-network sensor nodes with sensor capabilities used as rules for role identification. The URAF abstracts domain specific role attributes by three models: the role energy model, the role execution time model, and the role service utility model. The framework then generalizes resource management for services by providing abstractions for controlling the composition of a service in terms of roles, its assignment, reassignment, and scheduling. To the best of our knowledge, a generic role-based framework that provides a simple and unified network management solution for wireless sensor networks has not been proposed previously