Collision-free Time Slot Reuse in Multi-hop Wireless Sensor Networks

To ensure a long-lived network of wireless communicating sensors, we are in need of a medium access control protocol that is able to prevent energy-wasting effects like idle listening, hidden terminal problem or collision of packets. Schedule-based medium access protocols are in general robust against these effects, but require a mechanism to establish a non-conflicting schedule. In this paper, we present such a mechanism which allows wireless sensors to choose a time interval for transmission, which is not interfering or causing collisions with other transmissions. In our solution, we do not assume any hierarchical organization in the network and all operation is localized. We empirically show that our localized algorithm is successful within a factor 2 of the minimum necessary time slots in random networks; well in range of the expected (worst case) factor 3-approximation of known first-fit algorithms. Our algorithm assures similar minimum distance between simultaneous transmissions as CSMA(/CD)-based approaches

Combined Coverage Area Reporting and Geographical Routing in Wireless Sensor-Actuator Networks for Cooperating with Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

In wireless sensor network (WSN) applications with multiple gateways, it is key to route location dependent subscriptions efficiently at two levels in the system. At the gateway level, data sinks must not waste the energy of the WSN by injecting subscriptions that are not relevant for the nodes in their coverage area and at WSN level, energy-efficient delivery of subscriptions to target areas is required. In this paper, we propose a mechanism in which (1) the WSN provides an accurate and up-to-date coverage area description to gateways and (2) the wireless sensor network re-uses the collected coverage area information to enable efficient geographical routing of location dependent subscriptions and other messages. The latter has a focus on routing of messages injected from sink nodes to nodes in the region of interest. Our proposed mechanisms are evaluated in simulation

Collaborative communication protocols for wireless sensor networks

In this document, the design of communication within a wireless sensor network is discussed. The resource limitations of such a network, especially in terms of energy, require an integrated approach for all (traditional) layers of communication. We present such an integrated, collaborative approach which is part of current research in the European research project EYES on energy-efficient sensor networks. In particular, energy-efficient solutions for medium access control, clusterbased routing and multipath routing are discussed. As part of the ongoing project, these approaches work together and are designed to support each other

Design of a low-power testbed for Wireless Sensor Networks and verification

In this document the design considerations and component choices of a testbed prototype device for wireless sensor networks will be discussed. These devices must be able to monitor their physical environment, process data and assist other nodes in forwarding sensor readings. For these tasks, five basic parts are necessary in a sensor node: sensor interface, computational unit, memory, communication interface and energy source. Hardware choices for these\ud components will be discussed, as well as an additional debugging interface. The design has been verified by implementation of a few example applications. The testbed includes a tiny preemptive real time operating system

On Mobility Management in Multi-Sink Sensor Networks for Geocasting of Queries

In order to efficiently deal with location dependent messages in multi-sink wireless sensor networks (WSNs), it is key that the network informs sinks what geographical area is covered by which sink. The sinks are then able to efficiently route messages which are only valid in particular regions of the deployment. In our previous work (see the 5th and 6th cited documents), we proposed a combined coverage area reporting and geographical routing protocol for location dependent messages, for example, queries that are injected by sinks. In this paper, we study the case where we have static sinks and mobile sensor nodes in the network. To provide up-to-date coverage areas to sinks, we focus on handling node mobility in the network. We discuss what is a better method for updating the routing structure (i.e., routing trees and coverage areas) to handle mobility efficiently: periodic global updates initiated from sinks or local updates triggered by mobile sensors. Simulation results show that local updating perform very well in terms of query delivery ratio. Local updating has a better scalability to increasing network size. It is also more energy efficient than ourpreviously proposed approach, where global updating in networks have medium mobility rate and speed

AWARE: Platform for Autonomous self-deploying and operation of Wireless sensor-actuator networks cooperating with unmanned AeRial vehiclEs

This paper presents the AWARE platform that seeks to enable the cooperation of autonomous aerial vehicles with ground wireless sensor-actuator networks comprising both static and mobile nodes carried by vehicles or people. Particularly, the paper presents the middleware, the wireless sensor network, the node deployment by means of an autonomous helicopter, and the surveillance and tracking functionalities of the platform. Furthermore, the paper presents the first general experiments of the AWARE project that took place in March 2007 with the assistance of the Seville fire brigades

A Framework for a Distributed and Adaptive Query Processing Engine for Wireless Sensor Networks

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) are formed of tiny, highly energy-constrained sensor nodes that are equipped with wireless transceivers and can be used primarily in environmental monitoring applications. The nodes communicate with one another by autonomously creating ad-hoc multihop networks which are subsequently used to gather sensor data. WSNs also process the data within the network itself and only forward the result to the requesting node. This is referred to as in-network data aggregation and results in the substantial reduction of the amount of data that needs to be transmitted by any single node in the network. We present a framework for WSNs which would allow optimised query execution plans to be generated in a distributed manner using only locally available information within the network thus preventing the need to transmit network metadata all the way to a central server. We also describe how this framework can be used to perform cross-layer optimisations and illustrate this by presenting a MAC protocol that adapts its operation according to data gathered by the query processing engine. Query plans also adapt continuously by monitoring varying network conditions to maintain energy-efficient operation thus maximising network lifetime