NeTS-NOSS: Imaging Sensor Nets: from Concept to Prototypes

University Of California-Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara CA

Investigators

Abstract

Large scale wireless sensor networks with tens of thousands of nodes have a host of potential applications, including homeland security, environmental monitoring and planetary exploration. However, conventional multihop wireless networks do not scale to such large numbers of nodes, and node localization is difficult for random deployment of ultra low-cost sensors. This research provides a proof-of-concept for Imaging Sensor Nets, which address the problems of scale and localization simultaneously, employing ideas analogous to GPS, RFID and CDMA. A "smart" collector node sends an RF beacon, which is electronically reflected and data-modulated by "dumb" sensors illuminated by the beacon. The collector employs baseband and radar/imaging algorithms to process these reflected signals in order to simultaneously estimate the locations and data of the sensors. Millimeter wave carrier frequencies are employed in order to enhance resolution for localization of sensor nodes. The research activities include the challenging task of low-cost CMOS IC implementation of sensor hardware at millimeter wave frequencies (which are an order of magnitude higher than commercial RF communication systems), hardware brassboarding of the collector transceiver, design and software implementation of innovative baseband signal processing algorithms for timing acquisition and demodulation at the collector, and design and software implementation of imaging algorithms at the collector. In addition to the dissemination of results via the standard avenues of publications and the Internet, both indoor and outdoor demos of the technology will be widely publicized to industry and funding agencies in order to establish a clear path to technology transfer.