Probabilistic approaches to the design of wireless ad hoc and sensor networks

The emerging wireless technologies has made ubiquitous wireless access a reality and enabled wireless systems to support a large variety of applications. Since the wireless self-configuring networks do not require infrastructure and promise greater flexibility and better coverage, wireless ad hoc and sensor networks have been under intensive research. It is believed that wireless ad hoc and sensor networks can become as important as the Internet. Just as the Internet allows access to digital information anywhere, ad hoc and sensor networks will provide remote interaction with the physical world. Dynamics of the object distribution is one of the most important features of the wireless ad hoc and sensor networks. This dissertation deals with several interesting estimation and optimization problems on the dynamical features of ad hoc and sensor networks. Many demands in application, such as reliability, power efficiency and sensor deployment, of wireless ad hoc and sensor network can be improved by mobility estimation and/or prediction. In this dissertation, we study several random mobility models, present a mobility prediction methodology, which relies on the analysis of the moving patterns of the mobile objects. Through estimating the future movement of objects and analyzing the tradeoff between the estimation cost and the quality of reliability, the optimization of tracking interval for sensor networks is presented. Based on the observation on the location and movement of objects, an optimal sensor placement algorithm is proposed by adaptively learn the dynamical object distribution. Moreover, dynamical boundary of mass objects monitored in a sensor network can be estimated based on the unsupervised learning of the distribution density of objects. In order to provide an accurate estimation of mobile objects, we first study several popular mobility models. Based on these models, we present some mobility prediction algorithms accordingly, which are capable of predicting the moving trajectory of objects in the future. In wireless self-configuring networks, an accurate estimation algorithm allows for improving the link reliability, power efficiency, reducing the traffic delay and optimizing the sensor deployment. The effects of estimation accuracy on the reliability and the power consumption have been studied and analyzed. A new methodology is proposed to optimize the reliability and power efficiency by balancing the trade-off between the quality of performance and estimation cost. By estimating and predicting the mass objects\u27 location and movement, the proposed sensor placement algorithm demonstrates a siguificant improvement on the detection of mass objects with nearmaximal detection accuracy. Quantitative analysis on the effects of mobility estimation and prediction on the accuracy of detection by sensor networks can be conducted with recursive EM algorithms. The future work includes the deployment of the proposed concepts and algorithms into real-world ad hoc and sensor networks

Energy efficient organization and modeling of wireless sensor networks

With their focus on applications requiring tight coupling with the physical world, as opposed to the personal communication focus of conventional wireless networks, wireless sensor networks pose significantly different design, implementation and deployment challenges. Wireless sensor networks can be used for environmental parameter monitoring, boundary surveillance, target detection and classification, and the facilitation of the decision making process. Multiple sensors provide better monitoring capabilities about parameters that present both spatial and temporal variances, and can deliver valuable inferences about the physical world to the end user. In this dissertation, the problem of the energy efficient organization and modeling of dynamic wireless sensor networks is investigated and analyzed. First, a connectivity distribution model that characterizes the corresponding sensor connectivity distribution for a multi-hop sensor networking system is introduced. Based on this model, the impact of node connectivity on system reliability is analyzed, and several tradeoffs among various sleeping strategies, node connectivity and power consumption, are evaluated. Motivated by the commonality encountered in the mobile sensor wireless networks, their self-organizing and random nature, and some concepts developed by the continuum theory, a model is introduced that gives a more realistic description of the various processes and their effects on a large-scale topology as the mobile wireless sensor network evolves. Furthermore, the issue of developing an energy-efficient organization and operation of a randomly deployed multi-hop sensor network, by extending the lifetime of the communication critical nodes and as a result the overall network\u27s operation, is considered and studied. Based on the data-centric characteristic of wireless sensor networks, an efficient Quality of Service (QoS)-constrained data aggregation and processing approach for distributed wireless sensor networks is investigated and analyzed. One of the key features of the proposed approach is that the task QoS requirements are taken into account to determine when and where to perform the aggregation in a distributed fashion, based on the availability of local only information. Data aggregation is performed on the fly at intermediate sensor nodes, while at the same time the end-to-end latency constraints are satisfied. An analytical model to represent the data aggregation and report delivery process in sensor networks, with specific delivery quality requirements in terms of the achievable end-to-end delay and the successful report delivery probability, is also presented. Based on this model, some insights about the impact on the achievable system performance, of the various designs parameters and the tradeoffs involved in the process of data aggregation and the proposed strategy, are gained. Furthermore, a localized adaptive data collection algorithm performed at the source nodes is developed that balances the design tradeoffs of delay, measurement accuracy and buffer overflow, for given QoS requirements. The performance of the proposed approach is analyzed and evaluated, through modeling and simulation, under different data aggregation scenarios and traffic loads. The impact of several design parameters and tradeoffs on various critical network and application related performance metrics, such as energy efficiency, network lifetime, end-to-end latency, and data loss are also evaluated and discussed

EC-CENTRIC: An Energy- and Context-Centric Perspective on IoT Systems and Protocol Design

The radio transceiver of an IoT device is often where most of the energy is consumed. For this reason, most research so far has focused on low power circuit and energy efficient physical layer designs, with the goal of reducing the average energy per information bit required for communication. While these efforts are valuable per se, their actual effectiveness can be partially neutralized by ill-designed network, processing and resource management solutions, which can become a primary factor of performance degradation, in terms of throughput, responsiveness and energy efficiency. The objective of this paper is to describe an energy-centric and context-aware optimization framework that accounts for the energy impact of the fundamental functionalities of an IoT system and that proceeds along three main technical thrusts: 1) balancing signal-dependent processing techniques (compression and feature extraction) and communication tasks; 2) jointly designing channel access and routing protocols to maximize the network lifetime; 3) providing self-adaptability to different operating conditions through the adoption of suitable learning architectures and of flexible/reconfigurable algorithms and protocols. After discussing this framework, we present some preliminary results that validate the effectiveness of our proposed line of action, and show how the use of adaptive signal processing and channel access techniques allows an IoT network to dynamically tune lifetime for signal distortion, according to the requirements dictated by the application

Data-Centric Multiobjective QoS-Aware Routing Protocol for Body Sensor Networks

In this paper, we address Quality-of-Service (QoS)-aware routing issue for Body Sensor Networks (BSNs) in delay and reliability domains. We propose a data-centric multiobjective QoS-Aware routing protocol, called DMQoS, which facilitates the system to achieve customized QoS services for each traffic category differentiated according to the generated data types. It uses modular design architecture wherein different units operate in coordination to provide multiple QoS services. Their operation exploits geographic locations and QoS performance of the neighbor nodes and implements a localized hop-by-hop routing. Moreover, the protocol ensures (almost) a homogeneous energy dissipation rate for all routing nodes in the network through a multiobjective Lexicographic Optimization-based geographic forwarding. We have performed extensive simulations of the proposed protocol, and the results show that DMQoS has significant performance improvements over several state-of-the-art approaches

Planeación y despliegue de la red de sensores inalámbricos requerida para la medición inteligente de energía eléctrica usando restricciones de capacidad y cobertura

The electrical energy measurement (EEM), seeks to provide quality services without neglecting the reliability of the system. Therefore, a quality service must be closely linked to the wireless communication technologies, to technify the EEM, not only reading, but also cuts, reconnections, and other additional services that the intelligent measurement infrastructure provides through wireless technologies Such as cell or WiFi, increasingly common because of the reliability they provide in real-time data transmission. Wireless infrastructures allow us to provide coverage to the fixed terminals, determined by the electric meter, and in turn manage and plan the optimal deployment of wireless sensors (SI) in finite areas, whether urban, rural or suburban. This article proposes an optimal model for planning and deploying SI for the EEM in order to guarantee reliable wireless communication links at the lowest implementation cost. Therefore, the proposed algorithm gives global solutions within a finite scenario, making this a scalable model in time able to manage the use of available links. The SIs for the EEM are inserted into the Neighborhood Area Networks (NANs) covered by the mobile communications network.La medición de energía eléctrica (MEE), busca proporcionar servicios de calidad sin descuidar la confiabilidad del sistema. Por lo tanto, un servicio de calidad debe ir estrechamente ligada a las tecnologías de comunicación inalámbrica, para tecnificar la MEE, no solo lectura, sino también cortes, reconexiones, y otros servicios adicionales que la infraestructura de medición inteligente provee a través de tecnologías inalámbricas como celular o WiFi, cada vez más comunes debido a la confiabilidad que estas brindan en la transmisión de datos en tiempo real [1]. Las infraestructuras inalámbricas nos permiten brindar cobertura a los terminales fijos, determinados por el medidor eléctrico, y a su vez gestionar y planificar el óptimo despliegue de sensores inalámbricos (SI) en áreas finitas, ya sean, urbanas, rurales o suburbanas. Este artículo propone un modelo óptimo de planeación y despliegue de SI para la MEE con la finalidad de garantizar enlaces de comunicación inalámbricos confiables al menor costo de implementación. Por lo tanto, el algoritmo propuesto da soluciones globales dentro de un escenario finito, haciendo de este un modelo escalable en el tiempo capaz de gestionar el uso de enlaces disponibles. Los SI para la MEE, son insertados en las Redes de Área Vecindaria (NAN) cubiertas por la red de comunicaciones móviles

Real-Time and Energy-Efficient Routing for Industrial Wireless Sensor-Actuator Networks

With the emergence of industrial standards such as WirelessHART, process industries are adopting Wireless Sensor-Actuator Networks (WSANs) that enable sensors and actuators to communicate through low-power wireless mesh networks. Industrial monitoring and control applications require real-time communication among sensors, controllers and actuators within end-to-end deadlines. Deadline misses may lead to production inefficiency, equipment destruction to irreparable financial and environmental impacts. Moreover, due to the large geographic area and harsh conditions of many industrial plants, it is labor-intensive or dan- gerous to change batteries of field devices. It is therefore important to achieve long network lifetime with battery-powered devices. This dissertation tackles these challenges and make a series of contributions. (1) We present a new end-to-end delay analysis for feedback control loops whose transmissions are scheduled based on the Earliest Deadline First policy. (2) We propose a new real-time routing algorithm that increases the real-time capacity of WSANs by exploiting the insights of the delay analysis. (3) We develop an energy-efficient routing algorithm to improve the network lifetime while maintaining path diversity for reliable communication. (4) Finally, we design a distributed game-theoretic algorithm to allocate sensing applications with near-optimal quality of sensing