Routing in heterogeneous wireless ad hoc networks

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering, 2008.Includes bibliographical references (p. 135-146).Wireless ad hoc networks are used in several applications ranging from infrastructure monitoring to providing Internet connectivity to remote locations. A common assumption about these networks is that the devices that form the network are homogeneous in their capabilities. However in reality, the networks can be heterogeneous in the capabilities of the devices. The main contribution of this thesis is the identification of issues for efficient communication in heterogeneous networks and the proposed solutions to these issues. The first part of the thesis deals with the issues of unambiguous classification of devices and device identification in ad hoc networks. A taxonomical approach is developed, which allows devices with wide range of capabilities to be classified on the basis of their functionality. Once classified, devices are characterized on the basis of different attributes. An IPv6 identification scheme and two routing services based on this scheme that allow object-object communication are developed. The identification scheme is extended to a multi-addressing scheme for wireless ad hoc networks. These two issues and the developed solutions are applicable to a broad range of heterogeneous networks. The second part of the thesis deals with heterogeneous networks consisting of omnidirectional and directional antennas. A new MAC protocol for directional antennas, request-to-pause-directional-MAC (RTP-DMAC) protocol is developed that solves the deafness issue, which is common in networks with directional antennas. Three new routing metrics, which are extensions to the expected number of transmissions (ETX) metric are developed. The first metric, ETX1, reduces the route length by increasing the transmission power. The routing and MAC layers assume the presence of bidirectional links for their proper operation. However networks with omnidirectional and directional antennas have unidirectional links. The other two metrics, unidirectional-ETX (U-ETX) and unidirectional-ETX1 (U-ETX1), increase the transmission power of the directional nodes so that the unidirectional links appear as bidirectional links at the MAC and the routing layers. The performance of these metrics in different scenarios is evaluated.by Sivaram M.S.L. Cheekiralla.Ph.D

Wireless infrastructure monitoring

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering, 2004.Includes bibliographical references (p. 133-138).In this thesis we describe the development of a wireless sensor module for tunnel monitoring. The tunnel in question is a part of the London Underground system. Construction of a new tunnel beneath the existing tunnel is anticipated to cause quantifiable vertical displacement. To ensure safe operation of the tunnel during the construction activity, a real-time monitoring system has been created to measure vertical displacements along the critical zone near Highbury & Islington station. A geomechanical analysis, provided by a third party, is used to establish the allowable maximum displacement. A custom wireless sensor module was developed from off-the-shelf components. This module consists of a sensor device, microcontroller, ADC and RF transmitter. The integration of these components is described in detail. Deployment details and some preliminary results are presented.by Sivaram M.S.L. Cheekiralla.S.M