Wireless networks of miniature sensors fundamentally rely on the capability of bandwidth- and energy-efficient data transfer. Reporting of the observations, orchestration of measurement and in-situ processing, distribution of software updates and configuration require extensive system and network support. The goal of this project is to investigate and resolve the issues in power-constrained wireless communications, content delivery, and distributed processing affecting sensor networks, as pervasive as Mist.

Principal investigator: Hari Balakrishnan

Doctoral Students (listed alphabetically):

• Vladimir "Vlad" Bychkovsky ( vladb@lcs.mit.edu, website)
• Bret Hull ( bwhull@lcs.mit.edu, website )
• Kyle Jamieson ( jamieson@lcs.mit.edu, website )
• Stanislav "Stan" Rost ( stanrost@lcs.mit.edu, website )

Reliable Content Dissemination
Selective, reliable distribution of software upgrades, configuration information (such as duty cycle settings), database queries, and other data (such as patterns for recognition) in wireless sensor networks becomes challenging as these networks grow in size. We have designed a system for reliable, bandwidth- and energy-efficient distribution of content that provides the flexibility to deploy to a specific subset of network nodes. Over-the-air reprogramming is one example application included with our system.

The system is implemented on the NesC/TinyOS platform for the Mica2 motes, and will be available for download shortly.

Bandwidth management

Sift

Content indexing and retrieval

Soon to come.

Soon to come.