CAREER: Information-Aware Wireless Sensor Networks

带有低功率无线收发器的微型传感器的出现预示着无线革命将进入一个新阶段。传感器网络通过无处不在的廉价无线设备的部署，能够收集和传输环境数据。该项目解决了当前无线传感器网络中的一些最重要的问题。它寻求在对延迟敏感的应用程序的背景下，为采样、分布式信号处理和数据传播的综合分析制定一个综合框架。理解无线传感器网络中数据收集、资源分配和整体性能之间的相互作用需要一种新的思维方式和全球系统的观点。为此，本项目引入了一种部分基于大偏差、排队论和网络演算的时延敏感传感器网络的分析和设计方法，由数百或数千个无线传感器组成的系统使随机环境的密集采样成为可能。如此大量的设备产生的数据量同样巨大，这给观测数据的处理和传输带来了新的挑战。需要新的分析方法来洞察传感器网络的有效设计和概念。作为本研究项目的一部分，来自大偏差理论和渐近分析的技术将被扩展并应用于分布式传感。这些技术将被用来：推导相关领域中节点放置的指导方针，提出在具有统计延迟保证的多跳传感器网络上进行通信的新范例，开发利用单个分组的信息内容的访问控制策略，以及表征用于事件驱动应用的网络内信号处理和业务配置之间的相互作用。

The emergence of miniature sensors with low-power wireless transceivers holds the promise of a new phase in the wireless revolution. Sensor networks have the ability to collect and transmit environmental data through the ubiquitous deployment of inexpensive wireless devices. This project addresses some of the most important current issues in wireless sensor networks. It seeks to develop an integrated framework for the combined analysis of sampling, distributed signal processing, and data dissemination in the context of delay-sensitive applications. Understanding the interplay between data gathering, resource allocation, and overall performance in wireless sensor networks necessitates a new mindset and a global system perspective. To this end, this project introduces a methodology for the analysis and the design of delay-sensitive sensor networks based, in part, on large deviations, queueing theory, and network calculus.Systems composed of hundreds or thousands of wireless sensors make the dense sampling of stochastic environments possible. The amount of data generated by such large numbers of devices is equally vast, and it creates new challenges for the processing and transmission of observed data. Novel methods of analysis are required to provide insight into the efficient design and conception of sensor networks. As part of this research project, techniques from large-deviation theory and asymptotic analysis will be extended and applied to distributed sensing. These techniques will be used to: derive guidelines for node placement in correlated fields, propose novel paradigms for communication over multihop sensor networks with statistical delay guarantees, develop access control strategies that utilize the information content of individual packets, and characterize the interplay between in-network signal processing and traffic profiles for event-driven applications.