Abstract

Wireless sensor systems are a powerful tool to enable reliable monitoring and analysis of unknown and untested environments. Examples include water quality monitoring, weather prediction and machine health monitoring. They also give rise to a multitude of interesting and challenging networking problems in the lower layers of the OSI network stack such as designing low-power layer-2 and -3 protocols.

In this talk I shall start by giving an introduction to wireless sensor systems followed by the challenges faced in the data-link layer and how they shaped protocol design. Finally I shall look at why existing network layer protocols are unsuitable in sensor systems and what is used in their place.

After the talk you should have a basic understanding of what wireless sensor systems are and their applications; an understanding of the problems with designing medium access control and routing protocols; and knowledge of successful protocols in sensor systems such as S-MAC and directed diffusion.