CAREER: Information-Aware Wireless Sensor Networks

Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station, College Station TX

Investigators

Abstract

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.