ITR/SI+IM (CISE):Distributed Data Compression and Dissemination for Wireless Sensor Networks

Regents Of The University Of Michigan - Ann Arbor, Ann Arbor MI

Investigators

Abstract

This project will develop new methods for the efficient dissemination of the data collected by wireless sensor networks. With recent and projected advances in small, low cost microelectronic and micro-electromechanical sensors, it is easy to envision that a large array of sensors, distributed over an appropriate region, will be able to measure the spatial and temporal variations of important attribute field such as temperature, moisture, sound, light, gas concentrations, etc.. However, to realize the benefits of such arrays, wireless communication networks must be devised that with low power encode and disseminate the large amounts of data they generate. With this as the goal, the project will develop new methods of distributed data compression and data dissemination for dense sensor arrays, that is, for arrays whose sensors are so close that their measurements are highly correlated. One thesis of this project is that the correlations in such arrays can be exploited in order to make the network operate essentially as efficiently as a sparse sensor network, while having the additional advantages of being resilient to sensor failures and permitting the attribute field to be measured adaptively or with higher spatial resolution. Another thesis is that the data compression and dissemination issues for such networks are deeply intertwined. Accordingly, the project focuses on the joint design of such. For example, it seeks methodology for tailoring distributed data compression methods to partcular dissemination strategies, and vice versa. In the process, it proposed to learn how the performance of sensor networks depends on a variety of issues such as the number and placement of sensors.