Wireless Network of Devices

The WIND project is developing middleware and protocols that will enable applications networks of devices, sensors, and computers to communicate with each other with minimal manual or a priori configuration. Our goal is to provide the system infrastructure for a large class of pervasive computing applications for a world in which communication is everywhere and computation extends to even the most specialized of devices to make them connected to the network.

The WIND software addresses several inter-related areas:

• Configuration and message routing, the task of automatically creating topologies and adapting them to mobility, making sure that messages are routed even in the face of dynamism, taking bandwidth, latency, and energy consumption into account.
• Resource discovery, the task of automatically discovering and using networked resources, without manual configuration or administration. INS (Intentional Naming System) is a new naming system we are developing for device networks.
• Adaptation, the task of learning about and reacting to changing network conditions, including congestion, wireless errors, latency variations, and route changes.
• Security & privacy, the task of ensuring secure and authenticated access to devices and maintaining device and user privacy.
• Location-support infrastructure that is sensitive to user privacy and deployment issues, enabling location-dependent mobile applications.

Some of these areas have their own web pages:

• INS, an intentional naming system for resource discovery.
• Energy-efficient routing for device and sensor networks.
• Cricket location-support system.
• CM, the Internet congestion manager for adaptive applications.

We are developing location-dependent applications that use automatic location discovery and active map dissemination techniques to navigate new geographic environments and discover resources and people there (screen shots). WIND uses the late binding technique provided by INS, which integrates name resolution and message routing to track mobility and change, and uses intentional names to describe what its applications want or provide, rather than simply where in the network they might be found. WIND also uses self-configuring application-level overlay networks to achieve flexibility and deployment with minimal prior configuration.

WIND Team

William Adjie-Winoto | Hari Balakrishnan | Anit Chakraborty | John Guttag | Wendi Heinzelman | Jeremy Lilley | Allen Miu | Bodhi Priyantha | David Zych

Past members: Elliot Schwartz

WIND Papers & Talks

Some papers and talks can be found on the NMS publications and talks pages.

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