CAREER: Dependable Data Management in Heterogeneous Sensor Networks

New Jersey Institute Of Technology, Newark NJ

Investigators

Abstract

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5). A storage-centric heterogeneous sensor network (SC-HSN) consists of a large number of resource-poor sensor nodes at the lower tier and relatively fewer powerful master nodes at an upper tier. Sensor nodes produce and submit data to nearby master nodes which then answer the queries from the network owner on behalf of sensor nodes. SC-HSHs are ideal data sensing solutions in remote and extreme environments such as oceans, volcano, animal habitats, and battlefields. In such adverse environments, it is often impossible or prohibitive to maintain a stable always-on communication connection from the sensor network to the external network owner, and thus in-network data storage is a must such that data continuously produced by sensor nodes are stored inside the network and await ad-hoc queries via an on-demand communication connection. This project studies some fundamental open challenges associated with dependable data management in SC-HSNs. Specifically, there are three main thrusts in this project: (1) Distributed Fault-Tolerant Data Storage; (2) Privacy-Preserving Data Access Control; and (3) Verifiable Queries over Encrypted Data. The outcome of this research will advance the state of the art in data management in WSNs and provide an integrated solution to reliable, secure, efficient data storage and retrieval in SC-HSNs. The results of this project will also provide great insights for dependable data management in other types of emerging wireless networks such as mobile ad hoc networks, wireless mesh networks, and vehicular networks. The results of the project will be disseminated widely through publications and talks, and the proposed research will also be integrated with the education curricula.