WIRELESS SENSOR NETWORKS

Ian F. Akyildiz
Broadband & Wireless Networking Laboratory
School of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Georgia Institute of Technology
Tel: 404-894-5141; Fax: 404-894-7883
Email: ian@ece.gatech.edu
Web: http://www.ece.gatech.edu/research/labs/bwn

Sink
1.
INTRODUCTION
Internet,

SENSOR
Satellite,
etc

Sink

Several
thousand nodes
Nodes are tens
of feet of each
other
Densities as high
as 20 nodes/m3

NETWORKS ARCHITECTURE

Task
Manager

I.F.Akyildiz,

W.Su, Y. Sankarasubramaniam, E. Cayirci,

Wireless Sensor Networks: A Survey, Computer Networks (Elsevier) Journal, March 2002.
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Key technologies that

Micro electro-mechanical
enable
systems (MEMS)
sensor
networks:
Wireless
communications
Digital electronics

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Sensor Network Concept

Sensors nodes are very close to each
other
Sensor nodes have local processing
capability
Sensor nodes can be randomly and
rapidly deployed even in places
inaccessible for humans
Sensor nodes can organize themselves to
communicate with an access point
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Sensor nodes can collaboratively work
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SENSOR NODE HARDWARE

Location Finding System

Mobilizer

SENSING UNITPROCESSING UNIT

Transceiver
Memory

Processor
Sensor ADC

Power Unit
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Small
Low power
Low bit rate
High density
Low cost (dispensable)
Autonomous
Adaptive

Power Generator

Example: MICA Motes

BWN Lab @ GaTech

Processor and
Radio platform
(MPR300CB) is
based on Atmel
ATmega 128L
low power
microcontroller
that runs TinyOs
operating system
from its internal
flash memory.
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Berkeley Motes

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Specifications of the Mote

Processor/Radio
Board

MPR300CB

Speed

4 MHz

Flash

128K bytes

SRAM

4K bytes

EEPROM

4K bytes

Radio Frequency

916MHz or
433MHz

ISM Band

Data Rate

40 Kbits/Sec

Max

Power

0.75 mW

Radio Range

100 feet

Power

2 x AA batteries

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Remarks

Programmable

Examples for Sensor Nodes

UCLA: WINS

UC Berkeley: COTS Dust

UC Berkeley:
Smart Dust

JPL: Sensor Webs

Rockwell: WINS
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Examples for Sensor Nodes

Rene
Mote
Dot
Mote
Mica node

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weC Mote

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Zylogs eZ80
Provides a way to
internet-enabled process
control and monitoring
applications.
Temperature sensor,
water leak detector and
many more applications
Metro IPWorks software
stack embedded
Enables users to access
Webserver data and files
from anywhere in the
world.
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Systronix STEP board

A first tool to support
hardware development and
prototyping with the new
Dallas TINI Java Module.
Embedding the internet
with TINI java
A complete Java Virtual
Machine, TCP/IP stack,
ethernet hardware,
control area network,
iButton network and dual
RS232 all on SIMM72
module
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2. Sensor Networks
Applications

Sensor networks may consist of sensor types

such as:

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Seismic
Low sampling rate magnetic
Thermal
Visual
Infrared
Acoustic
Radar.
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Sensor Networks
Applications
Sensors can monitor ambient conditions including:

Temperature
Humidity
Vehicular movement
Lightning condition
Pressure
Soil makeup
Noise levels
The presence or absence of certain kinds of objects
Mechanical stress levels on attached objects, and
Current characteristics (speed, direction, size) of
an object

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Sensor Networks
Applications
Sensors can be used for:

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Continuous sensing
Event detection
Event identification
Location sensing
Local control of actuators

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Sensor Networks
Applications

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Military
Environmental
Health
Home
Other commercial
Space exploration
Chemical processing
Disaster relief
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Sensor Networks
Applications
Military Applications:
Command, control, communications, computing,
intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, targeting
(C4SRT)

Monitoring friendly forces, equipment and

ammunition
Battlefield surveillance
Reconnaissance of opposing forces and
terrain
Targeting
Battle damage assessment
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Nuclear, biological and chemical (NBC) attack
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SensIT:
Sensor Information Technology
SensIT was a program for developing software for distributed
wireless
sensor networks.
SensIT pursued two key thrusts:
* New networking techniques
* Network information processing.

SensIT nodes can support detection, identification, and tracking

of threats,
as well as targeting and communication.

http://www.darpa.mil/DARPATech2000/Speeches/ITOSpeeches/ITOSensIT(Kumar).doc
S. Kumar, D. Shepherd, SensIT: Sensor information technology for the warfighter, 4th
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Int. Conference
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ForceNet (US Navy)

ForceNet binds together Sea Strike, Sea Shield, and Sea Basing.

Sea StrikeProjecting Precise and Persistent Offensive Power

Sea ShieldProjecting Global Defensive Assurance
Sea BasingProjecting Joint Operational Independence

It is the framework for naval warfare that integrates

warriors, sensors, command and control, platforms, and weapons
into a networked, distributed combat force.

http://www.chinfo.navy.mil/navpalib/cno/proceedings.html
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SAD: SEAL Attack Detection &

Anti-Submarine Warfare
antenna
led

hooks

cable

sensor
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Other Projects

ESG: Expeditionary Sensor Grid.

NCCT: Network Centric Collaborative Targeting.

Sea Web.

Smart Web

Sensor Web

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Other Military Applications

Intrusion detection (mine fields)

Detection of firing gun (small arms)
location
Chemical (biological) attack detection
Targeting and target tracking systems
Enhanced guidance and IFF systems
Battle damage assessment system
Enhanced logistics systems,

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Environmental Applications
Tracking the movements of birds, small animals, and insects

Monitoring environmental conditions that affect crops and livesto

Irrigation
Macroinstruments for large-scale Earth monitoring and
planetary exploration
Chemical/biological detection
Biological, Earth, and environmental monitoring in marine, soil, an
atmospheric contexts
Meteorological or geophysical research
Pollution study, Precision agriculture
Biocomplexity mapping of the environment
Flood detection, and Forest fire detection.
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Forest Fire Detection

Purpose: Detect fire before spread
uncontrollable.
Maybe strategically, randomly, and

densely deployed
Millions of sensor nodes can be deploye

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Health Applications
Providing interfaces for the disabled
Integrated patient monitoring
Diagnostics
Monitoring the movements and internal
processes of
insects or other small animals
Telemonitoring of human physiological data
Tracking and monitoring doctors and
patients inside a
hospital, and
Drug administration in hospitals

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Drug Administration in Hospitals

Purpose: Minimize prescribing the wrong medication to
patients.
Identify patients allergies and required medications

Current computerized systems can reduce medication errors

and prevent many Adverse Drug Events (ADE)
Cost of ADEs is as high as $5.6 millions/year /hospital,
and 770,000 Americans injured and die annually because of
ADEs.
Save hospitals up to $500,000/year
Only 5% of civilian hospitals have computerized system
Can prevent 84% of dosage errors
Start-up cost is around $2 million (cheap sensor nodes can be
deployed).

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Home Applications
Types:
Security
Home automation, and
Smart Environment

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Smart
Environment
Purpose: Allowing users to seamlessly
interact with their environment.
Two perspectives:
human-centered, or technologycentered
Example: Aware Home project at
Georgia Tech.

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Smart
Environment
Human-centered:
A smart environment must adapt to
the needs of the users in terms of I/O
capabilities.
Technology-centered
New hardware technologies,
networking solutions and middleware
services must be developed.
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Smart Environment
(Contd)
Wired or wireless connection
Room 2

Room 1

Scanner and phone

with embedded
sensor nodes.

Computers
with embedded
sensor nodes.
User enters
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Server

User enters

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Commercial
Applications
Building virtual keyboards
Monitoring product quality
Constructing smart office spaces
Interactive toys
Monitor disaster areas
Smart spaces with sensor nodes embedded
inside
Machine diagnosis
Interactive museums
Managing inventory control
Environmental control in office buildings
Detecting, and monitoring car thefts, and
Vehicle tracking and detection.
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Vehicle Tracking and

Detection
Purpose: Locate a vehicle
AMPS sensor nodes are deployed
Two ways to detect and track the
vehicle

- determine the line of bearing (LOB)

in each
cluster and then forward to the
base-station, or
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- send all the raw data to the base- 32

iBadge - UCLA
Investigate behavior of children/patient
Features:

Speech recording/replaying
Position detection
Direction detection/estimation (compass)
Weather data: Temperature, Humidity,
Pressure, Light

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iBadge - UCLA

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iButton Applications

Caregivers Assistance

Do not need to keep a bunch of keys. Only

one iButton will do the work

Elder Assistance

They do not need to enter all their personal

information again and again. Only one touch
of iButton is sufficient
They can enter their ATM card information
and PIN with iButton
Vending Machine Operation Assistance

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3. Factors Influencing Sensor

Network Design

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A. Fault Tolerance (Reliability)

B. Scalability
C. Production Costs
D. Hardware Constraints
E. Sensor Network Topology
F. Operating Environment
G. Transmission Media
H. Power Consumption
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A. Fault Tolerance
(Reliability)

Sensor nodes may fail or be blocked due to lack of power

have physical damage, or environmental interference.

The failure of sensor nodes should not affect the overall

task of the sensor network.

This is called RELIABILITY or FAULT TOLERANCE,

i.e., ability to sustain sensor network

functionality without any interruption

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Fault Tolerance
(Reliability) (Ctnd)

Reliability (Fault Tolerance) of a sensor node is modeled:

R ( t ) exp( t )
k

i.e., by Poisson distribution, to capture the probability of n

having a failure within the time interval (0,t)
with lambda_k is the failure rate of the sensor node k and
t is the time period.

G. Hoblos, M. Staroswiecki, and A. Aitouche, Optimal Design of Fault Tolerant Sensor Networks,
IEEE International Conference on Control Applications , pp. 467-472, Anchorage, AK, September 2

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Fault Tolerance
(Reliability) (Ctnd)
EXAMPLE:
Suppose: lambda = 3.5 * 10-3

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t=10sec R
t=20sec
t=30sec
t=50sec

= 0.9
0.
R= 0
R= 0
R=0

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Fault Tolerance
(Reliability) (Ctnd)

Reliability (Fault Tolerance)

N sensor nodes is calculated

of a broadcast range with

from:

R(t ) 1 [1 Rk (t )]
k 1

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Fault Tolerance
(Reliability) (Ctnd)
EXAMPLE:
How many sensor nodes are needed within a broadcast
radius (range) to have 99% fault tolerated network?
Assuming all sensors within the radio range have same
reliability, prev. equation becomes

R (t ) 1 [1 R(t )]

Drop t and substitute f = (1 R).

o.99 = 1 fN N = 2
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Fault Tolerance
(Reliability) (Ctnd)
REMARK:
1. Protocols and algorithms may be designed to address
the level of fault tolerance required by sensor
networks.
2. If the environment has little interference, then the
requirements can be more relaxed.

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Fault Tolerance
(Reliability) (Ctnd)
Examples:
1. House to keep track of humidity and temperature
levels the sensors cannot be damaged easily or
interfered
by environments low fault tolerance (reliability)
requirement!!!!
2. Battlefield for surveillance the sensed data are critical
and sensors can be destroyed by enemies high
fault tolerance
(reliability) requirement!!!
Bottomline: Fault Tolerance (Reliability)
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depends heavily on applications!!!

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B. Scalability
The number of sensor nodes may reach millions in
studying
a field/application

The density of sensor nodes can range from

few to several
hundreds in a region (cluster) which can be
less than 10m in
diameter.

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Scalability (Ctnd)
The Sensor Node Density:
nodes

within the radio range R:

i.e., the number of expected

( R ) ( N R ) / A
2

where N is the number of scattered sensor nodes

in region A and R is the radio transmission range
Basically: is the number of sensor nodes withi
the
transmission radius of each sensor node in region
A.
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Network Configuration

Sink node

Radio Range R

Sensor nodes

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Scalability (Ctnd)
Assuming that connection establishment is equally
likely with any node within the radio range R of
the given node, the expected hop distance is:

dhop = 2R/3
e.g., R=20m 13.33m

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Network Configuration

dnei Expected distance to the nearest neighbor, may or may not be communicating nei
ne
dhop Expected distance to the next hop, i.e., distance to communicating neighbor. d hop>
Sink node

Radio Range R

dne
i

dho
p

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Sensor nodes

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Scalability (Ctnd)
EXAMPLE:

Assume sensor nodes are evenly distributed in the sensor

field, determine the node density if 200 sensor nodes
are deployed in a 50x50 m2 region where each sensor
node has a broadcast radius of 5 m.

Use the eq.

mu (R) = (200 * pi * 52 )/(50*50) = 2 * pi

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Scalability (Contd)
Examples:
1. Machine Diagnosis Application:
less than 300 sensor nodes in a 5 m x 5 m region.
2. Vehicle Tracking Application:
Around 10 sensor nodes per cluster/region.
3. Home Application: 2 dozens or more.
4. Habitat Monitoring Application: Range from 25 to 100
nodes/cluster
5. Personal Applications:
Ranges from 100s to 1000s, e.g., clothing, eye glasses, shoes,
watch, jewelry.
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C. Production Costs

Cost of sensors must be low so that the

sensor networks can be justified!!!
PicoNode: less than $1
Bluetooth system: around $10,THE OBJECTIVE FOR SENSOR COSTS
must be lower than $1!!!!!!!
Currently: COTS Dust Motes
ranges from $25 to $172
(STILL VERY EXPENSIVE!!!!)

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D. Sensor Node Hardware

A Sensor Node
Location Finding System

Mobilizer

SENSING UNITPROCESSING UNIT

Transceiver
Memory

Processor
Sensor ADC

Power Unit
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Small
Low power
Low bit rate
High density
Low cost (dispensab
Autonomous
Adaptive

Power Generator

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E. Sensor Network Topology

Several thousand
nodes
Nodes are tens of
feet of each other
Densities as high as
20 nodes/m3

Internet,
Satellite
, etc

Sink

Sink
Task
Manager

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Sensor Network Topology

(Ctnd)
Topology maintenance and change:

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Pre-deployment and Deployment Phase

Post Deployment Phase
Re-Deployment of Additional Nodes

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Sensor Network Topology

(Ctnd)
Pre-deployment and Deployment Phase
Sensor networks can be deployed by:

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Dropping from a plane

Delivering in an artillery shell, rocket or
missile
Throwing by a catapult (from a ship board,
etc.)
Placing in factory
Being placed one by one by a human or a
robot
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Sensor Network Topology (Ctnd)

Initial deployment schemes must

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reduce installation cost

eliminate the need for any preorganization and pre-planning
increase the flexibility of arrangement
promote self organization and fault
tolerance.

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Sensor Network Topology (Ctnd)

POST-DEPLOYMENT PHASE
After deployment, topology changes are due to
change in sensor nodes

position
reachability (due to jamming, noise, moving
obstacles, etc.)
available energy
malfunctioning

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F. Operating Environment
Sensor networks may work
in busy intersections

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in the interior of a large machinery

at the bottom of an ocean
inside a twister
at the surface of an ocean
in a biologically or chemically contaminated field in
a battlefield beyond the enemy lines
in a house or a large building
in a large warehouse
attached to animals
attached to fast moving vehicles
in a drain or river moving with current

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G. TRANSMISSION MEDIA

Radio or Infrared or Optical Media

ISM (Industrial, Scientific and Medical Bands)

433 MHz ISM Band in Europe and 915 MHz
as well as 2.4 GHz ISM Bands in North
America.
REASONS: Free radio, huge spectrum allocation
and global availability.

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Transmission Media
In a Multihop sensor network nodes are linked by Wireless medium
Radio Frequency (RF)
Most of the current sensor node HW is based on it
Do not need Line of Sight
Can hide these sensors
Infrared (IR)
License free
Robust to interference
Cheaper and easier to build
Require line of sight
Short Range Solution
Optical Media
Require Line of sight

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H. POWER CONSUMPTION

Sensor node has limited power source (~1.2V).

Sensor node LIFETIME depends on battery
lifetime
Sensors can be a DATA ORIGINATOR or a
DATA ROUTER.
Power conservation and power management
are important POWER AWARE PROTOCOLS
must be developed.
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Power Consumption (Ctnd)

Power consumption in a sensor network can be divided

into three domains

Communication
Data Processing
Sensing

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Power Consumption (Ctnd)

Communication
A sensor expends maximum energy in data
communication (both for transmission and
reception).
NOTE:
For short range communication with low radiation power (~0 dbm),

transmission and reception power costs are approximately the same,

(e.g., modern low power short range transceivers consume between
15 and 300 milliwatts of power when sending and receiving).
Transceiver circuitry has both active and start-up
power consumption
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Power Consumption (Ctnd)

Power consumption for data communication (Pc)

Pc = Pte + Pre + P0

Pte/re
P0

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is the power consumed in the transmitter/receiver

electronics (including the start-up power)
is the output transmit power

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Power Consumption in Data Communication

(PC) (Detailed Formula)

Pc NT [ PT (Ton Tst ) Pout (Ton )] N R [ PR ( Ron Rst )]

where

PT is power consumed by transmitter

PR is power consumed by receiver
Pout is output power of transmitter N
T
Ton is time for transmitter on
Ron is time for receiver on
Tst
Rst

is start-up time for

is start-up time for
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is the number of times

transmitter is switched on per

unit time
transmitter N is the number of times receiver
R
receiver
is switched on per unit time

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Power Consumption in Communication (Ctnd)

Ton = L / R

where L is the packet size and R is the data rat

ra
Low power radio transceiver has typical PT and

PR values around 20 dBm and Pout close to 0 dBm

Note that PicoRadio aims at a Pc value of 20 dBm

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Power Consumption in Communication (Ctnd)

START-UP POWER: REMARK:

Sensors communicate in short data packets

Start-up power starts dominating as packet
size is reduced
It is inefficient to turn the transceiver ON and O
because a large amount of power is spent in
turning the transceiver back ON each time.

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Power Consumption in Data Processing

(Ctnd)
This is much less than in communication.
EXAMPLE:
Energy cost of transmitting 1 KB a distance of
100 m is approx. equal to executing 3 Million
instructions by a 100 million instructions per
second processor.

Local data processing is crucial in minimizing

power consumption in a multi-hop network
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Power Consumption in Data Processing

(Ctnd)

Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor

(CMOS) technology used in designing processors
has energy limitations

Dynamic Voltage Scaling and other Low power

CPU organization strategies need to be explored

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Power Consumption in Data Processing (Pp)

Pp C V

dd

f Vdd I o exp{Vdd / n'VT }

Where
C is the total switching capacitance; Vdd is the voltage swing;
F is the switching frequency
The second term indicates the power loss due to leakage currents.

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Power Consumption (Ctnd)

(Another Simple Energy Model)

Assuming a sensor node is only operating in

transmit and receive modes with the following
assumptions:
Energy to run circuitry:
E_{elec} = 50 nJ/bit
Energy for radio transmission:
E_{amp} = 100 pJ/bit/m2
Energy for sending k bits over distance d
E_Tx (k,D) = E_{elec} * k + E_{amp} * k * d2
Energy for receiving k bits:
E_Rx (k,D) = E_{elec} * k
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ENERGY MODEL

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Power Consumption (Ctnd)

(Another Simple Energy Model)

What is the energy consumption if 1 Mbit of

information is transferred from the source
to the sink where the source and sink are
separated by 100 meters and the broadcast
radius of each node is 5 meters?
Assume the neighbor nodes are overhearing
each others broadcast.

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Power Consumption (Ctnd)

(Another Simple Energy Model)

100 meters / 5 meters = 20 pairs of transmitting and

receiving nodes (one node transmits and one node receives)

E_Tx (k,D) = E_{elec} * k + E_{amp} * k * D2

E_{Tx} = 50 nJ/bit . 106 + 100 pJ/bit/m2 . 106 . 52 =

= 0.5J + 0.0025 J = 0.0525 J

E_Rx (k,D) = E_{elec} * k

E_{Rx} = 0.05 J
E_{pair} = E_{Tx} + E_{Rx} = 0.1025J
E_{T}
= 20 . E_{pair} = 20. 0.1025J = 2.050 J
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Power Consumption in Sensing (Ctnd)

Depends on
Application
Nature of sensing: Sporadic or Constant
Detection complexity
Ambient noise levels

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Sensor Networks
Communication Architecture
Sensor Node

Internet,
Satellite,
etc
Task
Manager

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Sink

Sensor Field

Collect data
Route data back to the sink

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Sensor Networks Communication

Architecture

Transport Layer
Network Layer

Data Link Layer

Physical Layer

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Task Management Plane

Mobility Management
Plane
Power Management
Plane

Application Layer

Used by sink and all sensor nodes

Combines power and routing aware
awar
Integrates data with networking pr
p
Communicates power efficiently th
wireless medium and
Promotes cooperative efforts.

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WHY CANT AD-HOC NETWORK

PROTOCOLS BE USED HERE?
Number of sensor nodes can be several
orders of magnitude higher
Sensor nodes are densely deployed and are
prone to failures
The topology of a sensor network changes
very frequently due to node mobility and
node failure
Sensor nodes are limited in power,
computational capacities, and memory
May not have global ID like IP address.
Need tight integration with sensing tasks.
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5. APPLICATON LAYER
FRAMEWORK

Sensor Network Management Protocol

(SMP)
Task Assignment and Data Advertisement
Protocol
Sensor Query and Data Dissemination
Protocol

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Sensor Network Topology

Users
sensor node
gateway (gnode)

Internet,
Satellite,
etc

Server

Task
Manager

(Database)

wireless link
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APPLICATON LAYER

SMP: Sensor Managament

Protocolinteract with Sensors using SMP.
System Administrators
TASKS:

Moving the sensor nodes

Turning sensors on and off
Querying the sensor network configuration and the status
of
nodes and re-configuring the sensor network
Authentication, key distribution and security in data
communication
Time-synchronization of the sensor nodes
Exchanging data related to the location finding algorithms
Introducing the rules related to data aggregation,
attribute-based naming and clustering to the sensor
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nodes
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APPLICATON LAYER
(Query Processing)
Users can request data from the network-> Efficient Query
Processing
User Query Types:
1. HISTORICAL QUERIES:
Used for analysis of historical data stored in a storage area
(PC),
e.g., what was the temperature 2 hours back in the NW
quadrant.
2. ONE TIME QUERIES:
Gives a snapshot of the network, e.g., what is the current
temperature in the NW quadrant.
3. PERSISTANT QUERIES:
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Used
to monitor the network over a time interval with 82

QUERYING
Continuous

Sensors communicate their data continuously at a prespecified rate.

Event Driven

The sensors report information only when the event of interest occurs.

Observer Initiated (request-reply):

Sensors only report their results in response to an explicit request from the
observer.

Aggregate queries
Complex queries
Queries for replicated data

Hybrid

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APPLICATON LAYER
Sensor Query and Tasking Language (SQTL):
(C-C Shen, et.al., Sensor Information Networking Architecture and Applications,
IEEE Personal Communications Magazine, pp. 52-59, August 2001.)

SQTL is a procedural scripting language.

It provides interfaces to access sensor hardware:
- getTemperature, turnOn
for location awareness:
- isNeighbor, getPosition
and for communication:
- tell, execute.

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APPLICATON LAYER
Sensor Query and Tasking Language (SQTL):

By using the upon command, a programmer can

create an event handling block for three types of
events:
- Events generated when a message is received by a sensor
node,
- Events triggered periodically,
- Events caused by the expiration of a timer.

These types of events are defined by SQTL

keywords receive, every and expire, respectively.
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Simple Abtract Querying Example

Select [ task, time, location, [distinct | all], amplitude,

[[avg | min |max | count | sum ] (amplitude)]]
from [any , every , aggregate m]
where [ power available [<|>] PA |
location [in | not in] RECT |
tmin < time < tmax |
task = t |
amplitude [<|==|>] a ]
group by task
based on [time limit = lt | packet limit = lp |
resolution = r | region = xy]

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Data Centric Query

Attribute-based
naming architecture
Data centric
protocol
Observer sends a
query and gets the
response from valid
sensor node
No global ID
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APPLICATON LAYER

Task Assignment and Data Advertisement Protocol

INTEREST DISSEMINATION
* Users send their interest to a sensor
node,
a subset of the nodes or the entire
network.
* This interest may be about a certain
attribute
of the sensor field or a triggering even

ADVERTISEMENT OF AVAILABLE DATA

* Sensor nodes advertise the available
data to
the users and the users query the data
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which
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APPLICATON LAYER

Sensor Query and Data Dissemination Protocol

Provides

user applicatons with interfaces

to issue
queries, respond to queries and collect
incoming
replies.
These

queries are not issued to particular

nodes, instead
ATTRIBUTE

BASED NAMING (QUERY)

The locations of the nodes that sense
temperature
higher than 70F
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89

Interest Dissemination
Interest dissemination is performed to assign the sensing tasks
to the sensor nodes.
Either sinks broadcast the interest or sensor nodes broadcast
71
an advertisement for
the available data and wait for a request from the sinks.

75

68
Sink

67

66

71
71
68

71

69
Query:
Sensor nodes that read >70oF
temperature
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90

Data Aggregation (Data Fusion)

The sink asks the sensor nodes to report certain
conditions.
71
Data coming from multiple
sensor nodes are
aggregated.
75

68

Sink

67

66

71
71
68

71

69
Query:
Sensor nodes that read >70oF
temperature
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91

Location Awareness
(Attribute Based Naming)

Query an Attribute
of the sensor field

Region A
71
75

68
Sink

67

66

71
71

Region C
69

Query:
Temperatures read by the nodes
in Region A
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71

68

Important

Region B

for broadcasting,
multicasting, geocasting and
anycasting
92

APPLICATON LAYER RESEARCH

NEEDS

Sensor Network Management Protocol

Task Assignment and Data Advertisement
Protocol
Sensor Query and Data Dissemination
Protocol
Sophisticated GUI
(Graphical User Interface) Tool

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93

NETWORK LAYER
(ROUTING BASIC KNOWLEDGE)
The constraints to calculate the routes:
1. Additive Metrics:
Delay, hop count, distance, assigned costs (sysadmin
preference),
average queue length...
2. Bottleneck Metrics:
Bandwidth, residual capacity and other bandwidth
related metrics.

REMARK:
All routing algorithms are based on the same principle used as in
Dijkstra's,
which is used to find the minimum cost path from source to
destination.
Dikstra and Bellman solve the SHORTEST PATH PROBLEM
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RIP (Distant Vector Algorithm) -> Bellman/Ford Algorithm 94

Routing Algorithms Constraints Regarding

Power Efficiency (Energy Efficient Routing)

E (PA=1) F (PA=4)

Maximum power available (PA) route

Minimum hop route

Minimum energy route
D (PA=3)
T
Sink
Maximum minimum PA node
route (Route along which the
minimum PA is larger than the
A (PA=2)
B (PA=2)
C (PA=2) minimum PAs of the other routes
is preferred, e.g., Route 3 is the
Route 1: Sink-A-B-T (PA=4)
most efficient; Route 1 is the
Route 2: Sink-A-B-C-T (PA=6)
second).
Route 3: Sink-D-T (PA=3)

Route 4: Sink-E-F-T (PA=5)

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95

Why cant we use conventional

routing algorithms here?

Global (Unique) addresses, local addresses.

Unique node addresses cannot be used in many sensor

networks
- sheer number of nodes
- energy constraints
- data centric approach
Node addressing is needed for
- node management
- sensor management
- querying
- data aggregation and fusion
- service discovery
- routing
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96

Addressing in Sensor Networks

1. Attribute based naming and data centric routing

2. Spatial addressing (location awareness)
3. Address reuse
4. Query mapping.

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97

NETWORK LAYER
(ROUTING for SENSOR NETWORKS)
Important considerations:

Sensor networks are mostly data

centric
An ideal sensor network has attribute
based addressing and location
awareness
Data aggregation is useful unless it
does not hinder collaborative effort
Power efficiency is always a key factor

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98

Some Concepts
Data-Centric

Node doesn't need an identity

What is the temp at node #27 ?

Data is named by attributes

Where are the nodes whose temp recently exceeded 30 degrees

?
How many pedestrians do you observe in region X?
Tell me in what direction that vehicle in region Y is
moving?

Application-Specific

Nodes can perform application specific data

aggregation, caching and forwarding

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99

Attribute Based Naming

Data-Centric Routing

Interest dissemination is performed to assign the sensing tasks to the

sensor nodes.
Either sinks broadcast the interest or sensor nodes broadcast an
71
advertisement for
the available data and wait for a request from the sinks.

75

68
Sink

67

66

71
71
68

Query:
Nodes that read >70oF
temperature
IFA2004

71

69

10

Data Centric Routing

Attribute-based
naming architecture
Data centric
protocol
Observer sends a
query and gets the
response from valid
sensor node
No global ID
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10

Data Aggregation (Data

Fusion)
To solve the implosion and overlap problems in data centric routing.
Sensor network is perceived as a reverse multicast tree.
The sink asks the sensor nodes to report certain conditions. Data coming from
multiple sensor nodes
71
are aggregated.

75

68
Sink

66

67
71

71
68
Query:
Nodes that read >70oF
temperature
IFA2004

71

69

10

Data Aggregation
Categorization of Data Aggregation Schemes:
1. Temporal or spatial aggregation
2. Snapshot or periodical aggregation
3. Centralized or distributed aggregation
4. Early or late aggregation

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10

Polygonal (Spatial) Addressing

Location Awareness
Region A
71
75

68
Sink

67

66

71
71

Region C
69

Query:
Temperatures read by the nodes
in Region A
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71

68
Region B
Important

for broadcasting,
multicasting, geocasting
and anycasting
10

Taxonomy of
for Sensor

Routing Protocols
Networks

Categorization of Routing Protocols for Wireless Sensor

Networks:
(K. Akkaya, M. Younis, A Survey on Routing Protocols for Wireless Sensor Networks, Elsevier AdHoc
Networks, 2004)

1. Data Centric Protocols

Flooding, Gossiping, SPIN, SAR (Sequential Assignment

Routing) , Directed Diffusion, Rumor Routing, Gradient Based
Routing, Constrained Anisotropic Diffused Routing, COUGAR,
ACQUIRE

2. Hierarchical

LEACH, TEEN (Threshold Sensitive Energy Efficient Sensor Network Protocol),

APTEEN, PEGASIS, Energy Aware Scheme

3. Location Based

MECN, SMECN (Small Minimum Energy Com Netw), GAF

(Geographic Adaptive Fidelity), GEAR
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10

Conventional Approach
FLOODING
Broadcast data to all neighbor nodes
A
C
B
D

E
F
G

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10

ROUTING ALGORITHMS

Gossiping

GOSSIPING:
Sends data to one randomly selected neighbor.
Example:

IFA2004

10

Problems of
Flooding and Gossiping
PROBLEMS:
Although these techniques are simple and
reactive, they have some disadvantages
including:
* Implosion
(NOTE: Gossiping avoids this by selecting only one node; but this
causes delays to
propagate the data through the network)

* Overlap
* Resource Blindness
* Power (Energy) Inefficient
IFA2004

10

Problems
Implosion
(a)

B
(a)

(a)

C
D

Data Overlap
q

s
B

(a)
(q,r)

(r,s)

Resource Blindness
No knowledge about the available power of resources

IFA2004

10

Gossiping
Uses randomization to save energy

Selects a single node at random and sends the data

to it

Avoids implosions
Distributes information slowly
Energy dissipates slowly

IFA2004

11

The Optimum Protocol

Ideal

Shortest-path routes
Avoids overlap
D
Minimum energy
Need global topology information

IFA2004

A
C
B
E
F
G

11

Ideal Dissemination
No implosion and
no overlap
Disseminate in
shortest possible
time

IFA2004

11

SPIN: Sensor Protocol for

Information via Negotiation

(W.R. Heinzelman, J. Kulik, and H. Balakrishan, Adaptive Protocols for

Information Dissemination in Wireless Sensor Networks,
Proc. ACM MobiCom99, pp. 174-185, 1999 )

Two basic ideas:

Sensors communicate with each other

about the data that they already have and
the data they still need to obtain

to conserve energy and operate efficiently

exchanging data about sensor data may be cheap

Sensors must monitor and adapt to changes

in their own energy resources
IFA2004

11

SPIN
Uses three types of messages: ADV, REQ, and
DATA.
When a sensor node has something new, it broadcasts
an advertisement (ADV) packet that contains the new
data, i.e., the meta data.
- Interested nodes send a request (REQ) packet.
Data is sent to the nodes that request by DATA
packets.
This will be repeated until all nodes will get a copy.
-

IFA2004

11

SPIN
Good for disseminating information to all sensor nodes.
SPIN is based on data-centric routing where the sensors
broadcast an
advertisement for the available data and wait for a request from
interested sinks

1.
2.

1. ADV
2. REQ
3. DATA

3.

IFA2004

11

SPIN
Meta-Data <=> Data Naming
ADV

B
REQ

ADV- advertise/name data

REQ- request specific data
DATA- requested data

DATA
A
IFA2004

B
11

SPIN

ADV
REQ
DATA

IFA2004

ADV
DATA
REQ

11

EXAMPLE
Sensor A sends meta-data to neighbor

V
AD

IFA2004

11

Sensor B requests data from Sensor A

IFA2004

REQ

11

Sensor A sends data to Sensor B

A
DAT

IFA2004

12

Sensor B aggregates data and sends meta-data for

A and B to neighbors

AD
V

V
AD

IFA2004

ADV

AD
V

ADV
AD
V

12

REQ

All but 1 neighbor request data

REQ

REQ

IFA2004

RE
Q

REQ

12

DATA

Sensor B sends requested data to neighbors

DAT
A
IFA2004

TA
DA

TA
A
D

DA
TA

12

SPIN-1 Protocol
SPIN-1

3-stage handshake protocol

Advantages
Simple
Implosion avoidance

Disadvantages

* Cannot isolate the nodes that do not want to rec

information.
* Consume unnecessary power.

IFA2004

12

SPIN-2
Spin-2

SPIN-1 + low-energy threshold

Modifies behavior based on current
energy resources

IFA2004

12

SPIN-2
Adds a simple energy conservation heuristic
When energy is plentiful, SPIN-2 behaves
like SPIN-1
When energy approaches a low-energy
threshold, SPIN-2 node reduces its
participation in the protocol (DORMANT)
participate in a stage of protocol only if the node
believes that it can complete all the remaining stages

IFA2004

12

SPIN Algorithm Variants

Flooding -- Each node floods new data to
all of its neighbors.
Gossiping -- Each node floods all its data
to one, randomly selected neighbor.

Negotiating -- nodes decide what data to

send based on meta-data advertisements.
SPIN-1

Zzz...

IFA2004

Sleeping -- Same as negotiating, except

that nodes stop sending messages when
energy is low. SPIN-2

12

CONCLUSIONS
Flooding converges first
No delays

SPIN-1

Reduces energy by 70%

No redundant DATA messages

SPIN-2 distributes
10% more data per unit energy than
SPIN-1
60% more data per unit energy than
flooding
IFA2004

12

ROUTING ALGORITHM
(DIRECTED DIFFUSION)

(C. Intanagonwiwat, R. Gowindan and D. Estrin, Directed Diffusion: A Scalable and Robus
Communication Paradigm for Sensor Networks, Proc. ACM MobiCom00, pp. 56-67, 2000

This is a DATA CENTRIC ROUTING scheme!!!!

- The idea aims at diffusing data through sensor node
using
a naming scheme for the data.
- The main reason behind this is to get rid off
unnecessary
operation of routing schemes to save Energy.
Also Robustness and Scaling requirements need to
considered.
IFA2004
12
-

Data Centric
Data-Centric
Sensor node does not need an identity
What is the temp at node #27 ?

Data is named by attributes

Where are the nodes whose temp recently exceeded 30
degrees ?
How many pedestrians do you observe in region X?
Tell me in what direction that vehicle in region Y is
moving?

Application-Specific
Nodes can perform application specific data
aggregation, caching and forwarding
IFA2004

13

DIRECTED DIFFUSION

DD is data centric, i.e., data generated by sensor nodes

is NAMED by ATTRIBUTE-VALUE pairs.
* A sensor node requests data by sending interests
for named data.
* Data matching the interest is then drawn down towards
that node.
* Intermediate sensor nodes can cache or transform data
and may direct interests based on previously cached data.
*

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13

DIRECTED DIFFUSION

* An arbitrary sensor node (usually the SINK) uses attribute-value pairs

(interests) for the data and queries the sensors in an on-demand basis.
* In order to create a query, an interest is defined using a list of
attribute-value pairs such as name of objects, interval, duration,
geographical area, etc.
* The sink queries the sensors in an on-demand basis using these pairs.
* The sink broadcasts this interest to sensor nodes.
* Each sensor node then stores this interest entry in its cache.
* The interests in the caches are then used to compare the received
data with the values in the interests.

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13

DIRECTED DIFFUSION
Example:
* The users query is transformed into an interest that is diffused towards nodes in
regions X or Y.
* When a node in that region receives an interest it activates its sensors which begin
collecting information about pedestrians.
* When the sensors report the presence of pedestrians this returns along the
reverse path of interest propagation.
* Intermediate nodes might aggregate the data, e.g., more accurately pinpoint the
pedestrians location by combining reports from several sensors.
*

An important feature of directed diffusion is that interest and data propagation and
aggregation are determined by localized interactions (message changes between
neighbors or nodes within some vicinity)
IFA2004

13

DIRECTED DIFFUSION
Data is named using attribute-value pairs, e.g.,
Example: (Animal Tracking Task)
Type = four legged animal (detect animal location)
Interval = 20 ms (send back events every 20 ms)
Duration = 10 seconds (.. for the next 10 seconds)
Rec = [-100,100,200,00] (from sensors within the rectangle)

The task description specifies an interest for data matching for

attributes
called INTEREST.

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13

DIRECTED DIFFUSION

The data sent in response to interests are also named similarly

Example:
Sensor detecting the animal generates the following data:
Type four legged animal (type of animal seen)
Instance= elephant (instance of this type)
Locaton = (125,220) (node location)
Intensity = 0.6 (signal amplitude measure)
Confidence = 085 (confidence in the match)
Timestamp= 01:20:40 (event generation time)

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13

Directed Diffusion

Source

Sink

Data
Delivery
Gradient
Setup
Interest
Propagation
IFA2004

13

DIRECTED DIFFUSION

INTERESTS and GRADIENTS

The named task description constitutes an INTEREST.
An interest is injected into the network at some (arbitrary) node in the
network.
Suppose it is SINK.
INTERESTS are diffused through the sensor network.
Example:

A task with a specified type and rect, a duration of 10 minutes and an

interval of 10 ms is initiated by a sensor node in the network.
* The interval parameter specifies an event data rate.
* Here the specified data rate is 100 events per second.
* The sink node records the task, the task state is purged from the node
after
the time indicated by the duration attribute.
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13

DIRECTED DIFFUSION
* For each active task, SINK periodically broadcasts an interest
message
to each of its neighbors.
* This initial interest contains the specified rect and duration
attributes,
but contains a much larger interval attribute.

Every node maintains an interest cache.

* Each item in the cache corresponds to a distinct interest.

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13

DIRECTED DIFFUSION
An ENTRY in the interest cache has several fields:
* A TIMESTAMP field (timestamp of the last received matching
interest) and several GRADIENT fields up to one per neighbor.
* A GRADIENT is a relay link to a neighbor from which the interest
was received.
-*
-

Each GRADIENT contains

A data rate field
(requested by the specific neighbor)
A duration field
(approximate lifetime of the interest)

REMARK: Hence by utilizing interest and gradients, paths are

IFA2004
established between sink and sources, i.e., sensors. 13

DIRECTED DIFFUSION
When a node receives an interest it checks to see of the interest
exists
in the cache.
If no matching exists, the node creates a new entry.

If there exists an entry, but no gradient for the sender of the interes
the node adds a gradient with the specified value.
It also updates the entrys timestamp and duration fields.
Finally, if both an entry and gradient exist, the node simply
updates
IFA2004the timestamp and duration fields.

14

Directed Diffusion
Features

Sink sends interest, i.e., task descriptor, to all sensor nodes.

Interest is named by assigning attribute-value pairs.

source

source
sink

Interest Propagation

source
sink

Gradient Setup

sink
Data Delivery

Drawbacks
Cannot change interest unless a new interest is broadcast.
IFA2004

14

LEACH
Low Energy Adaptive Clustering Hierarchy
(LEACH)
(W. R. Heinzelman, A. Chandrakasan, and H. Balakrishnan, Energy-Efficient
Communication Protocol for Wireless Microsensor Networks,'' IEEE
Proceedings of the Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, pp.
1-10, January, 2000.)

* LEACH is a clustering based protocol which minimizes

energy dissipation
in sensor networks.
Idea:
* Randomly select sensor nodes as cluster heads, so the
high energy
dissipation in communicating with the base station is
spread
to all sensor
IFA2004
14
nodes in the sensor network.
-

LEACH
Two Phases: Set-up Phase and Steady-Phase

In Set-up Phase:
* Sensors may elect themselves to be a local cluster head at an
time with
a certain probability. (Reason: to balance the energy
dissipation)
* A sensor node chooses a random number between 0 and 1.
* If this random number is less than the threshold T(n), the sens
node
becomes a cluster-head.
T(n) = P / {1 P[r mod (1/P)]} if n is element of G

where P is the desired percentage to become a cluster head (e

0.05)
r
is the current round
G
is the set of nodes that have not been a cluster head
IFA2004
14
the last 1/P

Dynamic Clusters

IFA2004

14

LEACH
Once the nodes receive the advertisement, they determine
the cluster
that they want to belong based on the signal strength of
the advertisement
from the cluster heads to the sensor nodes.
The nodes inform the appropriate cluster heads that they
will be a member
of the cluster.
Afterwards the cluster heads assign the time on which the
sensor nodes can
send
data to them.
IFA2004

14

LEACH
STEADY STATE PHASE:
Sensors begin to sense and transmit data to the cluster
heads which
aggregate data from the nodes in their clusters.
After a certain period of time spent on the steady state,
the network goes into start-up phase again and enters
another round of
selecting cluster heads.

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14

LEACH
Optimum Number of Clusters ---????????

- too few: nodes far from cluster heads

too many: many nodes send data to SINK.

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14

LEACH
Achieves over a factor of 7 reduction in energy dissipation
compared to direct communication.
The nodes die randomly and dynamic clustering increases
lifetime of the system.
It is completely distributed and requires no global
knowledge of the network.
It uses single hop routing where each node can transmit
directly to the cluster head and the sink.
It is not applicable to networks deployed in large regions.
Furthermore, the idea of dynamic clustering brings extra
overhead, e.g., head changes, advertisements etc. which
may diminish the gain in energy consumption.
IFA2004

15

Other Protocols
1. Energy Aware Routing
R. Shah, J. Rabaey, Energy Aware Routing for Low Energy Ad Hoc Sensor
Networks, IEEE WCNC02, Orlando, March 2002.

2. Rumor Routing
D. Braginsky, D. Estrin, Rumor Routing Algorithm for Sensor Networks,
ACM WSNA02, Atlanta, October 2002.

3. Threshold sensitive Energy Efficient sensor Network (TEEN)

A. Manjeshwar, D.P. Agrawal, TEEN: A Protocol for Enhanced Efficiency in
Wireless Sensor Networks, IEEE WCNC02, Orlando, March 2002.

4. Constrained Anisotropic Diffusion Routing (CADR)

M. Chu, H.Hausecker, F. Zhao, Scalable Information-Driven Sensor Querying
and Routing for Ad Hoc Heterogeneous Sensor Networks, International Journal
of High Performance Computing Applications, Vol. 16, No. 3, August 2002.
IFA2004

15

Other Protocols
5. Power Efficient Gathering in Sensor Information Systems
(PEGASIS)
S. Lindsey, C.S. Raghavendra, PEGASIS: Power Efficient Gathering in Sensor
Information Systems, IEEE Aerospace Conference, Montana, March 2002.

6. Self Organizing Protocol

L. Subramanian, R.H. Katz, An Architecture for Building Self Configurable
Systems, IEEE/ACM Workshop on Mobile Ad Hoc Networking and
Computing, Boston, August 2000.

7. Geographic Adaptive Fidelity (GAF)

Y. Yu, J. Heideman, D. Estrin, Geography-informed Energy Conservation for
Ad Hoc Routing, ACM MobiCom01, Rome, July 2001.
IFA2004

15

Open Research Issues

Store and Forward Technique
that combines data fusion and aggregation.
Routing for Mobile Sensors
Investigate multi-hop routing techniques for
high mobility environments.
Priority Routing
Design routing techniques that allow different priority
of data to be aggregated, fused, and relayed.
3D Routing
IFA2004

15

TRANSPORT LAYER
(PRIOR KNOWLEDGE)

END TO END RELIABILITY

CONGESTION CONTROL
TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) for
Data Traffic
UDP (User Datagram Protocol) for Real
Time Traffic

IFA2004

15

Transport Layer

End-to-end
communication
between a sensor
node and user
End to end reliable
event transfer

Internet,
Satellite,
etc

Sink

Sink
User

IFA2004

15

TRANSPORT LAYER
Related Work

RMST (Reliable Multisegment Transport)

F. Stann and J. Heidemann, RMST: Reliable Data Transport in Sensor Networks,

In Proc. IEEE SNPA03, May 2003, Anchorage, Alaska, USA

RMST is a transport layer protocol for directed diffusion.

RMST provides end-to-end data-packet transfer reliability.
RMST is a selective NACK-based protocol that can be
configured for in-network caching and repair.
There are two modes for RMST:
Caching Mode and Non-Caching Mode .
CACHING MODE:
A number of nodes along a reinforced path,
(path being used to convey the data to the sink by directed
diffusion), are assigned as RMST nodes.

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15

Reliable Multi-Segment Transport

(RMST)
Each RMST node caches the
fragments identified by FragNo of a
flow identified by RmstNo.
Watchdog timers are maintained
for each flow. When a fragment is
not received before the timer
expires, a negative
acknowledgement is sent backward
in the reinforced path.
The first RMST node that has the
required fragment along the path
retransmits the fragment.
Sink acts as the last RMST node.
In non-caching mode, sink is the
only RMST node.
RMST relies on directed diffusion
15
scheme for recovery from the failed

Sink

RMST Node
Source Node

IFA2004

Related Work

PSFQ - Pump Slowly Fetch

Quickly
Slow injection of packets into the network
Aggressive hop-by-hop recovery in case of packet losses
PUMP performs controlled flooding and requires each
intermediate node to create and maintain a data cache to
be used for local loss recovery and in-sequence data
delivery.
Applicable only to strict sensor-sensor guaranteed delivery
And for control and management end-to-end reliability for
the downlink from sink to sensors
Does not address congestion control
C. Y. Wan, A. T. Campbell and L. Krishnamurthy, PSFQ: A Reliable Transport Protocol for Wireless
Sensor Networks, In Proc. ACM WSNA02,
WSNA02, September 2002, Atlanta, GA

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15

Pump Slowly Fetch Quickly

(PSFQ)

PSFQ comprises three functions:

* Message Relaying (PUMP operation),
* Relay initiated error recovery (FETCH operation) and
* Selective status reporting (REPORT operation).
Every intermediate node maintains a data cache.
A node that receives a packet checks its content against its local
cache, and discards any duplicates.
If the received packet is new, the TTL field in the packet is
decremented.
If the TTL field is higher than 0 after being decremented, and there
is no gap in the packet sequence numbers, the packet is scheduled to
be forwarded.
The packets are delayed for a random period between Tmin and
Tmax, and then relayed.
A node goes to FETCH mode once a sequence number gap is detected.
The node in FETCH mode requests a retransmission from neighboring
IFA2004
nodes.
15

Related Work
Wireless TCP variants are NOT suitable for
sensor networks
Different notion of end-to-end reliability
Huge buffering requirements
ACKing is energy draining
BOTTOMLINE: Traditional end-to-end
guaranteed reliability (TCP solutions)
cannot be applied here.

New Reliability Notion is requir

requi
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16

Event-to-Sink Reliability
(ESRT)

O. B. Akan, I. F. Akyildiz and Y. Sankarasubramaniam,

to appear in IEEE Transactions on Networking, Fall 2004.
Also in Proc. of ACM MobiHoc03, Annapolis, Maryland, June
2003.
Event Radius

Sink

Sensor nodes

Sensor networks are event-driven

Multiple correlated data flows from event to
sink
GOAL: To reliably detect/estimate event
features based on the collective reports of
several sensor nodes observing the event.
Event-to-sink collective reliability notion
IFA2004

16

Event-to-Sink Reliable Transport

(ESRT)
ESRT is the first scheme that focuses on the end-to-end
reliable event transfer.
The end-to-end event transfer reliability is controlled
based on the reporting frequencies of sensor nodes.

b
a

Sink
d

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16

End-to-end Reliable Event

Transfer
event region
sensor coverage
r

sensor range

b
a

Sink
r

IFA2004

16

Event-to-Sink
Reliability
Sink decides about event features every time units (decision intervals)
DEFINITION 1: Observed Event Reliability
ri is the number of data packets received in decision interval i at sink
DEFINITION 2: Desired Event Reliability
R is the number of packets required for reliable event detection (application specific and is known a-priori at the

sink)
(If ri > R, then the event is reliably detected. Else, appropriate

actions must be taken to achieve R.)

DEFINITION 3: Reporting Rate
f is the frequency of packet transmissions at a source node
TRANSPORT PROBLEM IN SENSOR NETWORKS:
To configure the reporting rate, f, of source nodes so as to achieve the required event detection reliability, R, at the sink
with minimum resource utilization.

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16

r vs f relationship

r shows initial linear increase with f until f = fmax

For f > fmax , r drops due to congestion because the network is unable to handle the
increased injection of data packets
This behavior is independent of the number of nodes n
fmax decreases with increasing n (congestion occurs at lower reporting frequencies with
greater number of source nodes n)

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ESRT: Event-to-Sink
Reliable Transport
OBJECTIVE:
Achieve reliable event detection with minimum
energy expenditure and congestion resolution.
SALIENT FEATURES:
Self-configuration Adapts to random, dynamic
network topology
Collective identification Does not require
individual node IDs
Biased implementation Graceful transfer of
complexity to the sink
Sensor nodes need only two additional functions
Implement a congestion detection mechanism
Listen to sink broadcasts for frequency updates
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ESRT: Protocol Overview

Determine reporting frequency f to achieve
desired reliability R with minimum resource
utilization
Source (Sensor nodes):
Send data with reporting frequency f
f
Monitor buffer level and notify
congestion to the sink

Sink:
Measures the observed event reliability ri at the end of
decision interval i
Normalized reliability i = ri / R
Performs congestion decision based on the feedback from
the sources nodes (to determine f >< fmax).
Update f based on i and f >< fmax (congestion) to achieve
desired event reliability R

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ESRT: Network
States

State

Description

(NC,LR)

(No congestion, Low reliability)

f < fmax and < 1 -

(NC,HR)

(No congestion, High

reliability)

f fmax and > 1+

(C,HR)

(Congestion, High reliability)

f < fmax and > 1

(C,LR)

(Congestion, Low reliability)

f < fmax and 1

OOR
Optimal Operating Region
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Condition

f < fmax and [1- , 1+ ]

16

ESRT:

Congestion Detection Mechan

ACK/NACK not suitable

We use local buffer level monitoring in
sensor nodes
B

bk : Buffer fullness level at

the end of reporting interval k
b : Buffer length increment
B

: Buffer size

: reporting frequency

f
bk

bk-1

Mark Congestion Notification (CN ) field in packet if

congested, i.e.,

b k + b > B ( the node infers that it will experience congestion in the next
Event
Time
CN
reporting interval)
Destinatio
Payload
FEC
ID

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(1 bit)

Stamp

16

ESRT: Frequency
Update

State
(NC,LR)

Frequency Update
fi+1 = fi / i

Comments
Multiplicative increase, achieve desired
reliability asap

fi+1 = fi (i + 1) / 2i

Conservative decrease, no compromise on

reliability

(C,HR)

fi+1 = fi / i

Aggressive decrease to state (NC,HR)

(C,LR)

fi+1 = fi i

(NC,HR)

OOR
fi+1 = fi
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Exponential decrease, relieve congestion asap

Unchanged

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ESRT Performance

S0 = (NC,LR)
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S0 = (NC,HR)
17

ESRT Performance

S0 = (C,HR)
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S0 = (C,LR)
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Conclusions
Sensor network paradigm necessitates the
notion of event-to-sink reliability
Existing end-to-end guaranteed reliability
solutions lead to over-utilization of scarce sensor
resources
ESRT is a novel solution propose exclusively for
reliable event transport in sensor networks
Tailored for sensor environments
Biased implementation
Energy conservation
Collective identification, self-configuration
ESRT can also address concurrent multiple
events
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Open Research
Issues
Extend ESRT to address reliable transport of
concurrent multiple events in the sensor field.
Explore possible other reliability metrics
Total expected mean square distortion
Minimum mean squared error estimation

Develop unified transport layer protocols for

sink-to-sensors and bi-directional reliable
transport in WSN
Research to integrate WSN domain into NGWI
(Next Generation Wireless Internet)
Adaptive Transport Protocols for WSN-Ad Hoc
environments
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Medium Access Control (MAC)

Multiple users need to access the limited

available communication resources.

MAC aims at providing fair and efficient

resource access

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Medium Access Control (MAC)

(Prior Knowledge)

ALOHA
Slotted ALOHA
Reserved ALOHA
CSMA (nonpersistant, p-persistant,1-persistant)
TDMA
FDMA
CDMA
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Aloha/Slotted Aloha
Aloha
collision
sender A
sender B
sender C

Slotted Aloha

t
collision

sender A
sender B
sender C
t
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FDMA (Frequency
Division Multiple Access)
Frequency
User n

User 2
User 1

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Time

17

FDMA Bandwidth
Structure

Frequency

Total bandwidth

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FDMA Channel
Allocation
User 1
User 2

User n

Mobile
Stations

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Frequency 1
Frequency 2

Frequency n

Base Station

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TDMA (Time Division

Multiple Access)

User n

User 2

User 1

Frequency

Time

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TDMA Frame
Structure

Time

Frame

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TDMA Frame
Allocation
Time
1

User 2
User n

Mobile Stations

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Time 2

User 1

Time n

Base Station

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CDMA (Code Division

Multiple Access )

User 1

...

User 2

User n

Frequency

Time

Code
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Medium Access Control

(MAC)
Existing MAC protocols cannot be used for sensor
networks because sensor MACs must have inbuilt
Power management, mobility management and
failure recovery strategies

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Medium Access Control (MAC)

for Sensor Networks
Self-Organizing Medium Access Control for Sensor

Networks (SMACS) and Eavesdrop and Register (EAR)

Hybrid TDMA-FDMA
CSMA based

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Medium Access Control

(MAC) SMACS and EAR

Available bandwidth is far greater than the maximum data rate

of sensors

Neighbor discovery and channel assignment combined

Random wake up during the connection phase

In EAR mobile nodes are given full control of the connection

process

Mobile nodes keep a record of neighbor nodes

EAR is transparent to SMACS

Shortcomings

Nodes belonging to different subnets might not be able to

connect
A mainly static network is assumed

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CSMA Based

Traffic in sensor networks is highly correlated,

dominantly periodic, variable.

Constant listening times are energy efficient

Random delay avoids repeated collisions

Not suitable for delay-sensitive applications

Under higher load, RTS/CTS involves
considerable
messaging overhead

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Motivation for Our

Work
WSN are characterized by dense deployment of sensor
nodes
MAC Layer Challenges
Limited power resources
Need for a self-configurable, distributed protocol
Data centric approach rather than per-node fairness

Exploit spatial correlation to

reduce transmissions in MAC
layer !
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Collaborative Medium Access Based

on Spatial Correlation in Sensor
2
1
Networks
3
4
M. C. Vuran and I. F. Akyildiz, December 2003.
5
S

Nodes ni observe variables Xi , i=1,2,3,4,5

Minimum of 5 transmissions are required
Due to correlation, assume X1=X2 and X3=X4
Only 3 transmissions needed!
Regulate medium access to decrease number of
transmissions!
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Definitions
Correlation region of node ni
Region of radius r centered around node ni

Correlation neighbors of node ni

Nodes inside the correlation region of node ni

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Collaborative MAC
Protocol
If a node ni transmits data then
all its correlation neighbors
have redundant information
Route-thru data has higher
priority over generated data
Filter out transmission of
redundant data and prioritize
filtered data through the network!
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Collaborative MAC
Protocol

Two reasons for medium

access;
Source function:
Transmit event information
Router function:
Forward packets from
other nodes in the multihop path to the sink
Two components
Event MAC (E-MAC)
Network MAC (N-MAC)
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Event MAC (E-MAC)

Aims to filter out correlated sensor
records
First Contention Phase (FCS)
Nodes contend using IEEE 802.11 structure
for the first time

After a node ni captures the channel all

the correlation neighbors of ni
Drop their packets
Enter Suspicious Sleep State (SSS)

Nodes enter FCS after a period of time to

maintain equal load-sharing
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Network MAC (NMAC)

Since correlation is filtered out by
E-MAC, route-thru packet has
higher priority
N-MAC prioritizes these packets
during medium access using
Smaller backoff window size
PIFS (<SIFS) during contention
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Performance

Both energy consumption and latency

decreases when spatial correlation is exploited
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Conclusions
Spatial correlation in sensor networks is exploited in
the MAC layer
MAC protocol collaboratively regulates medium access
such that redundant transmissions is suppressed
Event MAC (E-MAC) filters out correlation whereas
Network MAC (N-MAC) prioritizes the route-thru packets
Number of transmissions are reduced instead of number
of transmitted bits
Collaborative Medium Access achieves low energy
consumption as well as improving event detection
latency

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MEDIUM ACCESS CONTROL

(MAC) FURTHER RESEARCH NEEDS
MAC for sensor networks must have inbuilt
power
management, mobility management and failure
recovery
strategies

Need for a self-configurable, distributed

protocols
Data centric approach rather than per-node
fairness
Develop MACs which differentiate Multimedia
Traffic

Exploit Spatial & Temporal Correlation

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Error Control
Some sensor network applications like mobile

tracking
require high data precision

Coding gain is generally expressed in terms of the

additional
transmit power needed to obtain the same BER
without coding

FEC is preferred over ARQ

Since power consumption is crucial, we must take

into
account encoding and decoding energy
expenditures
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ERROR CONTROL
RESEARCH NEEDS
Design of suitable FEC codes with minimal
encoding
and relatively higher decoding complexities

Feasibility of ARQ schemes in multihop sensor

networks
(hop by hop ARQ instead of end-to-end). This is
needed for
reliable communications (data critical)

Adaptive/Hybrid FEC/ARQ schemes

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20
Extension
to Rayleigh/Rician fading conditions

Optimal Packet Size for Wireless

Sensor Networks

Y. Sankarasubramaniam, I. F. Akyildiz, S. McLaughlin, Optimal Packe

Size
for Wireless Sensor Networks, IEEE SNPA, May 2003.

Determining the optimal packet size for sensor networks is necessary to operate at high energy
efficiencies.
efficiencies.
The multihop wireless channel and energy consumption characteristics are the two most important
factors that influence choice of packet size.

Header (2) Payload (<=73) Trailer (FEC) (>=3)

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PHYSICAL LAYER
New Channel Models (I/O/Underwater/Deep
Space)

Explore Antennae Techniques

(e.g., Smart Antennaes)

Software Radios??

New Modulation Schemes

SYNCH Schemes

FEC Schemes on the Bit Level

New Data Encryption

Investigate UWB

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FINAL REMARKS

IFA2004

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Basic Research
Needs

An Analytical Framework for Sensor Netwo

Find a Basic Generic Architecture and Pr
Development which can be tailored to spe
applications.

More theoretical investigations of the

Architecture and Protocol
developments

Network Configuration and Planning Sche

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FURTHER OPEN RESEARCH

ISSUES
Research to integrate WSN domain into NGWI
(Next Generation Wireless Internet)
e.g., interactions of Sensor and AdHoc
Networks or Sensor and Satellite or any other
combinations

Explore the SENSOR/ACTOR NETWORKS

Explore the SENSOR-ANTISENSOR NETWORKS

SECURITY ISSUES
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Some Applications
Clear Demonstration of Testbeds and Realistic
Applications
Not only data or audio but also video as well as
integrated
traffic.
SOME OF OUR EFFORTS IN BWN LAB @ GaTech

MAN for Meteorological Observations

SpINet for Mars Surface
Airport Security Sensors/Actors
Sensor Wars
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Wide Area Multi-campus Sensor Network

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FURTHER CHALLENGES
Protocol Stack
Follow the TCP/IP Stack, i.e., keep the

Strict Layer Approach ???

Or Interleave the Layer
functionalities???
Cross Layer Optimization
Standardization???
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Commercial
Viability of WSN
Within
the next few years, distributed sensing and
Applications
computing will be everywhere, i.e., homes, offices,
factories, automobiles, shopping centers, supermarkets, farms, forests, rivers and lakes.
Some of the immediate commercial applications of
wireless sensor networks are

Industrial automation (process control)

Defense (unattended sensors, real-time
monitoring)
Utilities (automated meter reading),
Weather prediction
Security (environment, building etc. )
Building automation (HVAC controllers).
Disaster relief operations
Medical and health monitoring and instrumentation

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Commercial
Viability of WSN
Applications

XSILOGY Solutions is a company which provides wireless sensor

network solutions for various commercial applications such as tank
inventory management, stream distribution systems, commercial
buildings, environmental monitoring, homeland defense etc.
http://www.xsilogy.com/home/main/index.html
In-Q-Tel provides distributed data collection solutions with sensor
network deployment.
http://www.in-q-tel.com/tech/dd.html
ENSCO Inc. invests in wireless sensor networks for meteorological
applications.
http://www.ensco.com/products/homeland/msis/msis_rnd.htm
EMBER provides wireless sensor network solutions for industrial
automation, defense, and building automation.
http://www.ember.com

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Commercial
Viability of WSN
Applications

H900 Wireless SensorNet System(TM), the first commercially

available end-to-end, low-power, bi-directional, wireless mesh
networking system for commercial sensors and controls is
developed by the company called Sensicast Systems. The company
targets wide range of commercial applications from energy to
homeland security.
http://www.sensicast.com
The Sensor-based Perimeter Security product is introduced by a
company called SOFLINX Corp. (a wireless sensor network
software company)
http://www.soflinx.com
XYZ On A Chip: Integrated Wireless Sensor Networks for the
Control of the Indoor Environment In Buildings is another
commercial application project currently performed by Berkeley.
http://www.cbe.berkeley.edu/research/briefs-wirelessxyz.htm

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Commercial
Viability of WSN
Applications

The Crossbow wireless sensor products and its environmental

monitoring and other related industrial applications of such as
surveillance, bridges, structures, air quality/food quality,
industrial automation, process control are introduced.
http://www.xbow.com
Japan's Omron Corp has two wireless sensor projects in the US
that it hopes to commercialize in the near future. Omron's
Hagoromo Wireless Web Sensor project consists of wireless
nodes equipped with various sensing abilities for providing
security for major cargo-shipping ports around the world.
http://www.omron.com
Possible business opportunity with a big home improvement store
chain, Home Depot, with Intel and Berkeley using wireless sensor
networks
http://www.svbizink.com/otherfeatures/spotlight.asp?iid=314

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Commercial
Viability of WSN
Applications

Millennial Net builds wireless networks combining sensor interface

endpoints and routers with gateways for industrial and building
automation, security, and telemetry
http://www.millennial.net
CSEM provides sensing and actuation solutions
http://www.csem.ch/fs/acuating.htm
Dust Inc. develops the next-generation hardware and software for
wireless sensor networks
http://www.dust-inc.com
Integration Associates designs sensors used in medical,
automotive, industrial, and military applications to cost-effective
designs for handheld consumer appliances, barcode readers, and
wireless computer input devices
http://www.integration.com

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Commercial
Viability of WSN
Applications

Melexis produces advanced integrated semiconductors, sensor

ICs, and programmable sensor IC systems.
http://www.melexis.com
ZMD designs, manufactures and markets high performance,
low power mixed signal ASIC and ASSP solutions for wireless
and sensor integrated circuits.
http://www.zmd.biz
Chipcon produces low-cost and low-power single-chip 2.4 GHz
ISM band transceiver design for sensors.
http://www.chipcon.com
ZigBee Alliance develops a standard for wireless low-power,
low-rate devices.
http://www.zigbee.com

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