Self-Organizing wireless sensor networks in action

John A. Stankovic

Abstract: Wireless sensor networks (WSN) composed of large numbers of small devices that self-organize are being investigated for a wide variety of applications. Two key advantages of these networks over more traditional sensor networks are that they can be dynamically and quickly deployed, and that they can provide fine-grained sensing. Applications, such as emergency response to natural or manmade disasters, detection and tracking, and fine grained sensing of the environment are key examples of applications that can benefit from these types of WSN. Current research for these systems is widespread. However, many of the proposed solutions are developed with simplifying assumptions about wireless communication and the environment, even though the realities of wireless communication and environmental sensing are well known. Many of the solutions are evaluated only by simulation. In this talk I describe a fully implemented system consisting of a suite of more than 30 synthesized protocols. The system supports a power aware surveillance, tracking and classification application running on 203 XSM motes and evaluated in a realistic, large-area environment. Technical details and evaluations are presented. I end with a discussion of opportunities and problems for data mining related to WSN.