Adaptive Distributed Fair Scheduling and Its Implementation in Wireless Sensor Networks

A novel adaptive and distributed fair scheduling (ADFS) scheme for wireless sensor networks is shown through hardware implementation. In contrast to simulation, hardware evaluation provides valuable feedback to protocol and hardware development process. The proposed protocol focuses on quality-of-service (QoS) issues to address flow prioritization. Thus, when nodes access a shared channel, the proposed ADFS allocates the channel bandwidth proportionally to the weight, or priority, of the packet flows. Moreover, ADFS allows for dynamic allocation of network resources with little added overhead. Weights are initially assigned using user specified QoS criteria. These weights are subsequently updated as a function of delay, enqueued packets, flow arrival rate, and the previous packet weight. The back-off interval is also altered using the weight update equation. The weight update and the back-off interval selection ensure that global fairness is attained even with variable service rates. The algorithm is implemented using UMR/SLU motes for an industrial monitoring application. Results the hardware implementation demonstrates improved performance in terms of fairness index, flow rate, and delay

Missouri S&T Mote-Based Demonstration of Energy Monitoring Solution for Network Enabled Manufacturing using Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN)

In this work, an inexpensive electric utilities monitoring solution using wireless sensor networks is demonstrated that can easily be installed, deployed, maintained and eliminate unnecessary energy costs and effort. The monitoring solution is designed to support network enabled manufacturing (NEM) program using Missouri University of Science and Technology (MST), formerly the University of Missouri-Rolla (UMR), motes

Diversity techniques for signal-strength based indoor location determination

Diversity techniques have been found in the literature to be suitable for compensating channel uncertainties such as multipath fading. In this thesis, we exploit spatial and frequency diversity techniques for improving accuracy in locating stationary and mobile objects in the indoor environment --Abstract, page iv

Energy efficient wireless sensor network protocols for monitoring and prognostics of large scale systems

In this work, energy-efficient protocols for wireless sensor networks (WSN) with applications to prognostics are investigated. Both analytical methods and verification are shown for the proposed methods via either hardware experiments or simulation. This work is presented in five papers. Energy-efficiency methods for WSN include distributed algorithms for i) optimal routing, ii) adaptive scheduling, iii) adaptive transmission power and data-rate control --Abstract, page iv

Communication models for monitoring and mobility verification in mission critical wireless networks

Recent technological advances have seen wireless sensor networks emerge as an interesting research topic because of its ability to realize mission critical applications like in military or wildfire detection. The first part of the thesis focuses on the development of a novel communication scheme referred here as a distributed wireless critical information-aware maintenance network (DWCIMN), which is presented for preventive maintenance of network-centric dynamic systems. The proposed communication scheme addresses quality of service (QoS) issues by using a combination of a head-of-the-line queuing scheme, efficient bandwidth allocation, weight-based backoff mechanism, and a distributed power control scheme. A thorough analysis of a head-of-the-line priority queuing scheme is given for a single-server, finite queue with a batch arrival option and user priorities. The scheme is implemented in the Network Simulator (NS-2), and the results demonstrate reduced queuing delays and efficient bandwidth allocation for time-critical data over non time critical data. In the second part, we introduce a unique mobility verification problem in wireless sensor networks wherein the objective is to verify the claimed mobility path of a node in a co-operating mission critical operation between two allies. We address this problem by developing an efficient power-control based mobility verification model. The simulation framework is implemented in Matlab and the results indicate successful detection of altered claimed paths within a certain error bound --Abstract, page iii

Localization of nodes in wired and wireless networks

This thesis focuses on the implementation of algorithms for localization of nodes in wired and wireless networks. The thesis is organized into two papers. The first paper presents the localization algorithms based on time of arrival (TOA) and time difference of arrival (TDOA) techniques for computer networks such as the Internet by using round-trip-time (RTT) measurements obtained from known positions of the gateway nodes. The RTT values provide an approximate measure of distance between the gateway nodes and an unknown node. The least squares technique is then used to obtain an estimated position of the unknown node. The second paper presents localization of an unknown node during route setup messages in wireless ad hoc and sensor networks using a new routing protocol. A proactive multi-interface multichannel routing (MMCR) protocol, recently developed at Missouri S&T, was implemented on the Missouri S&T motes. This protocol calculates link costs based on a composite metric defined using the available end-to-end delay, energy utilization, and bandwidth, and it chooses the path that minimizes the link cost factor to effectively route the information to the required destination. Experimental results indicate enhanced performance in terms of quality of service, and implementation of this protocol requires no modification to the current IEEE 802.11 MAC protocol. Received signal strength indicator (RSSI) values are recorded from the relay nodes (gateway nodes) to the unknown node during route setup messages. The location of the unknown node is estimated using these values with some a priori profiling and the known positions of the relay nodes as inputs to the least squares technique --Abstract, page iv

Energy-aware and secure routing with trust levels for wireless ad hoc and sensor networks

This dissertation focuses on the development of routing algorithms for secure and trusted routing in wireless ad hoc and sensor network. The first paper presents the Trust Level Routing (TLR) protocol, an extension of the optimized energy-delay routing (OEDR) protocol, focusing on the integrity, reliability and survivability of the wireless network...The second paper analyzes both OLSR and TLR in terms of survivability and reliability to emphasize the improved performance of the network in terms of lifetime and proper delivery of data...The third paper proposes a statistical reputation model that uses the watchdog mechanism to observe the cooperation of the neighboring nodes...The last paper presents the results of the hardware implementation of Energy-Efficient Hybrid Key Management --Abstract, page iv