Shape Segmentation and Applications in Sensor Networks

Sensor networks have a unique geometric character as sensor nodes are embedded in, and designed to monitor, the physical environment. Thus the physical locations of sensor nodes have a fundamental influence of the system desig

Spatial Distribution in Routing Table Design for Sensor Networks

Abstract—We propose a generic routing table design principle for scalable routing on networks with bounded geometric growth. Given an inaccurate distance oracle that estimates the graph distance of any two nodes with constant factor upper and lower bounds, we augment it by storing the routing paths of pairs of nodes, selected in a spatial distribution, and show that the routing table enables 1 + ε stretch routing. In the wireless ad hoc and sensor network scenario, the geographic locations of the nodes serve as such an inaccurate distance oracle. Each node p selects O(log n loglog n) other nodes from a distribution proportional to 1/r 2 where r is the distance to p and the routing paths to these nodes are stored on the nodes along these paths in the network. The routing algorithm selects links conforming to a set of sufficient conditions and guarantees with high probability 1+ε stretch routing with routing table size O ( √ n log n loglog n) on average for each node. This scheme is favorable for its simplicity, generality and blindness to any global state. It is a good example that global routing properties emerge from purely distributed and uncoordinated routing table design. I

Topological Data Processing for Distributed Sensor Networks with Morse-Smale Decomposition

Abstract—We are interested in topological analysis and processing of the large-scale distributed data generated by sensor networks. Naturally a large-scale sensor network is deployed in a geometric region with possibly holes and complex shape, and is used to sample some smooth physical signal field. We are interested in both the topology of the discrete sensor field in terms of the sensing holes (voids without sufficient sensors deployed), as well as the topology of the signal field in terms of its critical points (local maxima, minima and saddles). Towards this end, we develop distributed algorithms to construct the Morse-Smale decomposition. The sensor field is decomposed into simply-connected pieces, inside each of which the sensor signal is homogeneous, i.e., the data flows uniformly from a local maximum to a local minimum. The Morse-Smale decomposition can be efficiently constructed in the network locally, after which applications such as iso-contour queries, data-guided navigation and routing, data aggregation, and topologically faithful signal reconstructions benefit tremendously from it. I

Hierarchical Spatial Gossip for Multiresolution Representations in Sensor Networks

In this paper we propose a lightweight algorithm for constructing multi-resolution data representations for sensor networks. At each sensor node u, we compute, O(logn) aggregates about exponentially enlarging neighborhoods centered at u. The ith aggregate is the aggregated data from nodes approximately within 2 i hops of u. We present a scheme, named the hierarchical spatial gossip algorithm, to extract and construct these aggregates, for all sensors simultaneously, with a total communication cost of O(npolylogn). The hierarchical gossip algorithm adopts atomic communication steps with each node choosing to exchange information with a node distance d away with probability ∼ 1/d 3. The attractiveness of the algorithm attributes to its simplicity, low communication cost, distributed nature and robustness to node failures and link failures. We show in addition that computing multi-resolution aggregates precisely (i.e., each aggregate uses all and only the nodes within 2 i hops) requires a communication cost of Ω(n √ n), which does not scale well with network size. An approximate range in aggregate computation like that introduced by the gossip mechanism is therefore necessary in a scalable efficient algorithm. Besides the natural applications of multi-resolution data summaries in data validation and information mining, we also demonstrate the application of the pre-computed multi-resolution data summaries in answering range queries efficiently

Iso-Contour Queries and Gradient Descent with Guaranteed Delivery in Sensor Networks

Abstract—We study the problem of data-driven routing and navigation in a distributed sensor network over a continuous scalar field. Specifically, we address the problem of searching for the collection of sensors with readings within a specified range. This is named the iso-contour query problem. We develop a gradient based routing scheme such that from any query node, the query message follows the signal field gradient or derived quantities and successfully discovers all iso-contours of interest. Due to the existence of local maxima and minima, the guaranteed delivery requires preprocessing of the signal field and the construction of a contour tree in a distributed fashion. Our approach has the following properties: (i) the gradient routing uses only local node information and its message complexity is close to optimal, as shown by simulations; (ii) the preprocessing message complexity is linear in the number of nodes and the storage requirement for each node is a small constant. The same preprocessing also facilitates route computation between any pair of nodes where the the route lies within any user supplied range of values. I

Numerical Simulation and Experimental Research on Coal Ash Collecting and Grading System

The grading separation of coal ash can not only increase its economic value but also decrease its pollution to environment. Based on the jet-attracting flow technology and the gas-solid two-phase flow theory, the force and motion of coal ash particles in airflow were studied firstly. Focused on single coal ash particle, Matlab software was used to simulate the force conditions and separation parameters of various diameter coal ash particles in airflow. Fluent software was used to simulate the nozzle fluidization domain shape and to determine optimal jet flux. According to the theoretical results, a coal ash collecting and grading system was developed. Using the separation efficiency as the evaluation index, the optimal experiment parameters of jet flux, attracting flux, and separation time were obtained. At last, the calculated results and experimental results of coal ash particles median diameter from the first grading separation exit under various attracting fluxes were compared. The reasons that could cause the errors were discussed. This study has significant practical meaning and application value on coal ash collecting and grading separation