CRI:II-NEW: Design of a Solar-powered River Sensor Network Tested

该奖项是根据2009年美国复苏和再投资法案（公法111-5）资助的。鉴于水资源减少和全球气候变化导致的水问题日益成为全球的重要问题，在包括河流、溪流和流域在内的水体上建立和部署实时传感基础设施将是未来几十年最大的科学障碍之一，也是最大的研究机会之一。尽管无线传感器网络取得了许多技术进步，但现成的产品和科学家需要的可靠、容易部署的监测基础设施之间存在鸿沟。这项研究涉及设计一个太阳能河流传感器网络试验台，该试验台将实现永久河流传感器部署的愿景，即不断向实验室服务器传输数据。该测试平台将为开发强大、易于部署的水上无线网络以及监测河流和溪流的传感器平台提供基础的跨学科研究。具体的研究挑战包括太阳能无线网络的设计，以解决电力基础设施的缺乏，异构多无线电传感器节点和协议，以解决大地理区域稀疏部署带来的问题，以及无人值勤管理的自我管理传感器网络。除了解决计算机科学研究问题外，该试验台还将使环境科学家能够研究一些科学研究问题，同时将该试验台作为在其他河流进行更大规模实时监测部署的试验场。提议的测试平台还将通过以下方式直接影响本科研究和学生多样性：1)通过REU项目让本科生参与；2)通过开设传感器网络和生态学的实地课程影响课程开发；3)让当地高中参与，突出河流保护问题。

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).Given the growing global importance of water issues caused by dwindling water resources and global climate change, building and deploying a real-time sensing infrastructure across water bodies---including rivers, streams, and watersheds --- will be one of the great scientific hurdles and also one of the great research opportunities of the next several decades. Despite numerous technological advances in wireless sensor networks, a chasm separates what is offered by off-the-shelf products and what is needed by scientists for robust, easy deployment of a monitoring infrastructure over running waters. This research involves the design of a solar-powered river sensor network testbed that will enable the vision of perpetual river sensor deployments streaming data continually to laboratory servers.This testbed will enable fundamental, cross-disciplinary research on developing robust, easily deployable over-water wireless networks as well as sensor platforms for monitoring rivers and streams. Specific research challenges include design of solar-powered wireless networks to address lack of electrical infrastructure, heterogeneous multi-radio sensor nodes and protocols to address problems posed by sparse deployments over large geographic regions, and self-managing sensor networks for unattended management. In addition to addressing Computer Science research problems, the testbed will enable environmental scientists to study several scientific research questions, while using the testbed as a test site for larger real-time monitoring deployments in other rivers. The proposed testbed will also directly impact undergraduate research and student diversity by 1) involving undergraduate students through REU programs, 2) impacting curriculum development by enabling field courses in sensor networks and ecology, and 3) involving local high schools to highlight river conservation issues.