ASCENT: Adaptive Self-Configuring sEnsor Networks Topologies

Advances in micro-sensor and radio technology will enable small but smart sensors to be deployed for a wide range of environmental monitoring applications. The low per-node cost will allow these wireless networks of sensors and actuators to be densely distributed. The nodes in these dense networks will coordinate to perform the distributed sensing tasks. Moreover, as described in this paper, the nodes can also coordinate to exploit the redundancy provided by high density, so as to extend overall system lifetime. The large number of nodes deployed in these systems will preclude manual configuration, and the environmental dynamics will preclude design-time pre-configuration. Therefore, nodes will have to self-configure to establish a topology that provides communication and sensing coverage under stringent energy constraints. In ASCENT, each node assesses its connectivity and adapts its participation in the multi-hop network topology based on the measured operating region. This paper motivates and describes the ASCENT algorithm and presents simulation and experimental measurements.