CAREER: Coverage, Capacity, and Connectivity of Wireless Sensor Networks

无线传感器网络在环境监测、战场监视等多种应用中发挥着重要作用。无线传感器网络的基本功能是监控其部署的区域，并将传感器数据传输到特定的指定节点。因此，覆盖、容量和连通性是无线传感器网络运行和性能的三个最基本的属性。深入了解无线传感器网络的这些特性及其相互关系对于无线传感器网络的网络规划、算法设计和性能评估具有重要意义，本课题旨在为无线传感器网络提供高性能的覆盖、容量和连通性奠定坚实的理论基础和设计实用的协议。无线传感器网络具有许多不同于其他无线网络的独特特征，包括传感器节点的感知、通信和移动能力的异构性，有限的基础设施和电源，以及数据主要从传感器流向数据汇点而不是对等节点之间的流量模式。该研究整合了无线通信、随机建模、几何和组合优化等领域的概念和技术，以构建分析模型并开发实用解决方案。预期结果包括：(I)各种网络场景下覆盖、容量和连通性的基本限制；(Ii)稳健覆盖、连通性和数据传输的高效算法；(Iii)通过真实实验验证分析结果和评估算法性能的试验台。该项目还包括一个强大的教育组成部分，通过研究型学生的积极参与来促进教学、培训和学习。

Wireless sensor networks play an important role in a wide variety of applications such as environment monitoring and battlefield surveillance. The basic function of a wireless sensor network is to monitor its deployed region and transport sensor data to certain designated nodes. Therefore, coverage, capacity, and connectivity are three most fundamental properties for the operation and performance of a wireless sensor network. A deep understanding of these properties and their interrelationship is of great importance for the network planning, algorithm design, and performance of wireless sensor networks.This project aims to establish a strong theoretical foundation and design practical protocols to provide high performance coverage, capacity, and connectivity in wireless sensor networks. Wireless sensor networks have many unique characteristics differing from other wireless networks, including heterogeneous sensing, communication, and mobility capabilities of sensor nodes, limited infrastructure and power supply, and traffic pattern where data mainly flow from sensors to data sinks rather than between peer nodes. This research integrates the concepts and techniques in wireless communications, stochastic modeling, geometry, and combinatorial optimizations to construct analytical models and develop practical solutions.The expected outcomes include: (i) fundamental limits of the coverage, capacity, and connectivity under various network scenarios; (ii) efficient algorithms for robust coverage, connectivity, and data transportation; (iii) a test-bed to validate the analytical results and evaluate the performance of algorithms via real experiments. This project also includes a strong educational component that promotes teaching, training, and learning through the active involvement of research students.