EAGER: Exploratory Research into Ultra Energy Efficiency in Wireless Mesh and Sensor Networks for Hazardous Environments

Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station, College Station TX

Investigators

Abstract

This high-risk high-reward project is concerned with the urgent need to design and deploy wireless networks that withstand time in hazardous, radioactive environments, such as a nuclear plant disaster. A hazardous, radioactive environment is particularly insidious because sensing and communication devices deployed in the environment are exposed to radioactive emissions - hence, their extraction for recharging/repair is challenging, and their efficient operation may be seriously impacted if hardware not hardened for radiation is used, and because in this physical space non-cooperating wireless communication technologies, e.g., wireless mesh and sensor networks, need to coexist. This EAGER project explores a pathway and solutions towards achieving a significant increase in the operation time of coexisting wireless mesh and sensor networks deployed in a hazardous environment. The intellectual merit lies in a radical new approach (anchored in a new and solid Markov chain-based theoretical foundation, for achievable throughput, delay and energy efficiency) for a crosslayer design of ultra-energy efficient wireless communication protocols that employ duty cycling and network coding. The broader societal impact of the proposed research goes beyond the traditional impact of scientific research, literally affecting life and death. Results of the proposed research will be integrated with RESPOND-R, an NSF-funded instrument for emergency response research, deployable in hazardous environments throughout the US, where it could possibly save lives. This project will also offer research opportunities to graduate and undergraduate students and to underrepresented groups.