SENSORS: Theory and Practice of Sensor Network Architectures

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Populating our world with networks of sensors requires fundamental understanding of tech-niques for connecting and managing sensor nodes with a communication network in scalableand resource-e .cient ways.The proposed research involves a comprehensive program of sensornetwork architecture,design,evaluation,and implementation that integrates research expertisein the areas of wireless networking and multiuser communications and provides numerous op-portunities for enhancing student research and education in the area of sensor networks,at bothundergraduate and graduate levels.The dominant trend in sensor network practice is to consider a dense collection of tiny sensornodes with limited computation and communication capabilities,all connected via a .at,orad hoc,wireless network.Yet theoretical studies in multiuser communications suggest thatsubstantially improved performance can be obtained through sophisticated coordination amongnodes,requiring more versatile radios,hierarchy,and perhaps even sparse wired connectivity.Thus,the objectives of the proposed research are to:1)identify network architectures thatpermit the implementation of sophisticated transmission schemes that have been theoreticallystudied,2)analyze such schemes in the context of sensor networks and design new ones adoptinga cross-layer approach and 3)implement these schemes and verify their behavior on a realtestbed.The intellectual merit of the project lies in the improved understanding of an importantemerging class of wireless networks,and in the attempt to unite theory and practice.Clos-ing the widening gap between theoretically proposed strategies and practically implementedones is crucial to understanding and improving the performance and lifetime of these resource-constrained networks.Through a rigorous analytic approach,contributions to the emerging areaof network information theory are expected,leading to substantial advances in energy-e .cientand delay-constrained protocol design.The broader impact is manifested in part through an e .ort to integrate teaching and research.Experimentation on a hardware platform plays an integral role in both research and education.It will be used for veri .cation,as well as for undergraduate and graduate projects that providestudents with hands-on experience in a real sensor network testbed.This project will enablethe acquisition of the necessary hardware.Two newly developed graduate courses on multiusercommunications and wireless networking will bene .t greatly from this project.It is anticipatedthat by such close linking,research and education cross-fertilize each other within the frameworkof this proposal.Further,since the proposed architectures and related issues carry over to otherimportant classes of networks,the .ndings from this research will have an impact on a muchbroader class of wireless networks,including multihop cellular networks,that may soon becomesigni .cant for a major part of our society.The broader impact will also be felt through a broaddissemination of results and through current and future interactions with other universities.A-1