As the cost and size of computing and communication devices continues to shrink, researchers become more interested in networks that comprise extremely large numbers (1000’s, tens of 1000’s and up) of very small radio and computing platforms. These platforms might be used in sensing and monitoring applications, or pervasive or ubiquitous computing applications. To reduce cost, the number of gateway nodes or access points will be small compared to the total number of nodes, therefore implying that the networks will be multi-hop. Of course, when there are so many platforms, changing the batteries is impractical, so there is strong interest in multi-hop networking protocols that are extremely energy efficient. Individual nodes or platforms in such a network are necessarily severely resource-constrained, so the protocols must be distributed and be scalable with network density. Another consideration is mobility; if the nodes in the large, dense network (such as in a large swarm of miniature robots) are moving, then the protocols must have very low overhead.
The OLA-based unicast protocols being investigated in this project meet the requirements of distributed, scalable and low overhead, but previously, there were no unicast OLA-based protocols that could limit node participation (to save energy and enable multiple concurrent flows) without the use of location information such as GPS and geographical routing techniques.
Related Publications
- L. Thanayankizil, A. Kailas, and M.A. Ingram, “Routing for Wireless Sensor Networks with an Opportunistic Large Array (OLA) Physical Layer,” Ad Hoc & Sensor Wireless Networks, Special Issue on Sensor Technologies and Applications, Volume 8, Number 1-2, p. 79-117, 2009. View PDF (3230 KB)
- L. V. Thanayankizil, A. Kailas, and M.A. Ingram, “Two energy-saving schemes for cooperative transmission with opportunistic large arrays,” Wireless Sensors Workshop, Global Communications Conference (Globecom), November 2007. View PDF (338 kb)
- R. S. Frazier, A. Kailas, and M.A. Ingram, “Numerical evaluation of the energy for upstream opportunistic large array-based transmissions,” 10th International Symposium on Wireless Personal Multimedia Communications, Jaipur, December 2007. View PDF (369 kb)
- L. V. Thanayankizil, A. Kailas, and M.A. Ingram, “Energy-Efficient Strategies for Cooperative Communications in Wireless Sensor Networks,” (Best Paper Award) International Conference on Sensor Technologies and Applications (SENSORCOMM 2007), October 2007.View PDF (845 kb)