Thesis (M.Eng.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 2002.Includes bibliographical references (p. 143-144).This thesis examines important issues in the design of hardware and software for microsensor networks, with particular attention paid to mechanisms for providing power awareness. The [mu]AMPS Revision 1 microsensor node is used as an example. The design of this node implementation is described in detail, including, in particular, the design of the pAMPS processor board and its power-scalable architecture. The operating system and application programming interface for the node is described. Finally, an analysis is made of the power consumed by each of the node's subsystems, and these results are used to assess the degree of power-awareness provided by the [mu]AMPS Revision 1 node.by Nathan J. Ickes.M.Eng
