The problem which I address in this thesis is to find a way to organise and manage a network
of wireless sensor nodes using a minimal amount of communication. To find a solution I explore
the use of Bio-inspired protocols to enable WSN management while maintaining a low
communication overhead. Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) are loosely coupled distributed
systems comprised of low-resource, battery powered sensor nodes. The largest problem with
WSN management is that communication is the largest consumer of a sensor node’s energy.
WSN management systems need to use as little communication as possible to prolong their operational
lifetimes. This is the Wireless Sensor Network Management Problem. This problem
is compounded because current WSN management systems glue together unrelated protocols
to provide system services causing inter-protocol interference. Bio-inspired protocols provide a
good solution because they enable the nodes to self-organise, use local area communication, and
can combine their communication in an intelligent way with minimal increase in communication.
I present a combined protocol and MAC scheduler to enable multiple service protocols to
function in a WSN at the same time without causing inter-protocol interference. The scheduler
is throughput optimal as long as the communication requirements of all of the protocols remain
within the communication capacity of the network. I show that the scheduler improves a dissemination
protocol’s performance by 35%. A bio-inspired synchronisation service is presented
which enables wireless sensor nodes to self organise and provide a time service. Evaluation of
the protocol shows an 80% saving in communication over similar bio-inspired synchronisation
approaches. I then add an information dissemination protocol, without significantly increasing
communication. This is achieved through the ability of our bio-inspired algorithms to combine
their communication in an intelligent way so that they are able to offer multiple services
without requiring a great deal of inter-node communication.Open Acces
