Integrated Sensing: ScalableSensorSim - A Simulation Environment for Large-Scale Sensor Networks

Georgia Tech Research Corporation, Atlanta GA

Investigators

Abstract

In this project, we will extend and advance the state--of--the--art in the field of sensor network research in two important ways. First, we will design, implement, and distribute a simulation environment designed specifically for sensor networks of hundreds of thousands of network elements. The basic simulator will be designed from the beginning with scalability in mind, and will use distributed simulation methods to increase the available memory and CPU power that and be utilized to conduct the simulation experiments. Secondly, we will design and demonstrate a set of protocols designed specifically for data dissemination in a very large--scale sensor network environment. These protocols will be power and bandwidth aware, allowing a maximization of data throughput while at the same time extending the overall life of the network by limiting energy costs at individual network elements. The protocols will be designed to support a hierarchical view of the network, and will support primitives for data aggregation methods and selective attention of high--priority measurements. Our simulation environment will be freely available to all researchers working on large--scale wireless networks, and will foster increased attention to network performance as the network scales to tens or hundreds of thousands of elements. Our power and bandwidth aware protocols will encourage deployment of inexpensive environmental sensing devices that interact in a cooperative manner to insure sensor data is reliably delivered to the end--user on a timely basis.