9,618 research outputs found
Sensor Scheduling for Energy-Efficient Target Tracking in Sensor Networks
In this paper we study the problem of tracking an object moving randomly
through a network of wireless sensors. Our objective is to devise strategies
for scheduling the sensors to optimize the tradeoff between tracking
performance and energy consumption. We cast the scheduling problem as a
Partially Observable Markov Decision Process (POMDP), where the control actions
correspond to the set of sensors to activate at each time step. Using a
bottom-up approach, we consider different sensing, motion and cost models with
increasing levels of difficulty. At the first level, the sensing regions of the
different sensors do not overlap and the target is only observed within the
sensing range of an active sensor. Then, we consider sensors with overlapping
sensing range such that the tracking error, and hence the actions of the
different sensors, are tightly coupled. Finally, we consider scenarios wherein
the target locations and sensors' observations assume values on continuous
spaces. Exact solutions are generally intractable even for the simplest models
due to the dimensionality of the information and action spaces. Hence, we
devise approximate solution techniques, and in some cases derive lower bounds
on the optimal tradeoff curves. The generated scheduling policies, albeit
suboptimal, often provide close-to-optimal energy-tracking tradeoffs
Joint Routing and STDMA-based Scheduling to Minimize Delays in Grid Wireless Sensor Networks
In this report, we study the issue of delay optimization and energy
efficiency in grid wireless sensor networks (WSNs). We focus on STDMA (Spatial
Reuse TDMA)) scheduling, where a predefined cycle is repeated, and where each
node has fixed transmission opportunities during specific slots (defined by
colors). We assume a STDMA algorithm that takes advantage of the regularity of
grid topology to also provide a spatially periodic coloring ("tiling" of the
same color pattern). In this setting, the key challenges are: 1) minimizing the
average routing delay by ordering the slots in the cycle 2) being energy
efficient. Our work follows two directions: first, the baseline performance is
evaluated when nothing specific is done and the colors are randomly ordered in
the STDMA cycle. Then, we propose a solution, ORCHID that deliberately
constructs an efficient STDMA schedule. It proceeds in two steps. In the first
step, ORCHID starts form a colored grid and builds a hierarchical routing based
on these colors. In the second step, ORCHID builds a color ordering, by
considering jointly both routing and scheduling so as to ensure that any node
will reach a sink in a single STDMA cycle. We study the performance of these
solutions by means of simulations and modeling. Results show the excellent
performance of ORCHID in terms of delays and energy compared to a shortest path
routing that uses the delay as a heuristic. We also present the adaptation of
ORCHID to general networks under the SINR interference model
Deep Reinforcement Learning for Wireless Sensor Scheduling in Cyber-Physical Systems
In many Cyber-Physical Systems, we encounter the problem of remote state
estimation of geographically distributed and remote physical processes. This
paper studies the scheduling of sensor transmissions to estimate the states of
multiple remote, dynamic processes. Information from the different sensors have
to be transmitted to a central gateway over a wireless network for monitoring
purposes, where typically fewer wireless channels are available than there are
processes to be monitored. For effective estimation at the gateway, the sensors
need to be scheduled appropriately, i.e., at each time instant one needs to
decide which sensors have network access and which ones do not. To address this
scheduling problem, we formulate an associated Markov decision process (MDP).
This MDP is then solved using a Deep Q-Network, a recent deep reinforcement
learning algorithm that is at once scalable and model-free. We compare our
scheduling algorithm to popular scheduling algorithms such as round-robin and
reduced-waiting-time, among others. Our algorithm is shown to significantly
outperform these algorithms for many example scenarios
Markov Decision Processes with Applications in Wireless Sensor Networks: A Survey
Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) consist of autonomous and resource-limited
devices. The devices cooperate to monitor one or more physical phenomena within
an area of interest. WSNs operate as stochastic systems because of randomness
in the monitored environments. For long service time and low maintenance cost,
WSNs require adaptive and robust methods to address data exchange, topology
formulation, resource and power optimization, sensing coverage and object
detection, and security challenges. In these problems, sensor nodes are to make
optimized decisions from a set of accessible strategies to achieve design
goals. This survey reviews numerous applications of the Markov decision process
(MDP) framework, a powerful decision-making tool to develop adaptive algorithms
and protocols for WSNs. Furthermore, various solution methods are discussed and
compared to serve as a guide for using MDPs in WSNs
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