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Description: TOPIC: APPLICATION COMMUNICATION RELIABILITY IN WIRELESS SENSOR NETWORK
ABSTRACT:
Results from reliability modeling and analysis are key contributors to the design and tuning activities of critical computer-based engineering systems. In many cases, particularly in smart systems that are capable of analyzing a situation and making decisions based on available data in an adaptive or predictive manner thereby performing intelligent actions, the operation of physical and engineered systems is monitored, coordinated, controlled, and integrated by a computing and communication core, which is based on networked wireless sensors. While the Internet has transformed the way we exchange information with one another, networked sensor systems are taking this stride further to build an environmentally-aware network that will empower us to assimilate a deeper and broader understanding of the physical world than ever. But to ensure reliable and safe operation of sensor systems, it is critical that the communication among these smart wireless sensors be reliable and dependable. Any network outage, loss of transmitted data, or failure to capture important data decreases the users trust on the system. From the viewpoint of researchers, developers and even consumers, reliability analysis is therefore an indispensable step before sensor systems can be widely deployed for mission-critical applications.

This dissertation focuses on application communication of wireless sensor networks (WSNs), which relates to the transfer of sensed data collected from physical environments to the sink node through wireless links. We propose a time-dependent link failure model that incorporates the consideration of battery discharge for different types of batteries, sensor node power consumption, and wireless channel conditions for link reliability evaluation. We model and analyze the application communication reliability (ACR) of WSNs supporting K-coverage in the presence of shadowing for a specific monitored area. Impacts of the proposed link failure model, different K-coverage requirements, routing protocols, network density, and channel conditions on ACR are studied. A prototype software tool is developed to implement the proposed reliability models and methods for WSNs under the application communication paradigm.

In this dissertation, we also investigate the concept of small-world for improving communication reliability and energy consumption of wireless networks. Small-world phenomenon is an important property of many complex networks possessing small average shortest path lengths and high clustering coefficients. We investigate solutions based on extension of wireless links to create the small-world property in wireless networks that typically have large average shortest path length due to the locality of physical connections.

NOTE: All ECE Graduate Students are ENCOURAGED to attend.
All interested parties are invited to attend. Open to the public.

Co-Advisor: Dr. Liudong Xing and Dr. Vinod M. Vokkarane (UMass Lowell)
Committee Members:
Dr. Dayalan P. Kasilingam and Dr. Honggang Wang, Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering;
Dr. Yan (Lindsay) Sun, Department of Electrical, Computer and Biomedical Engineering, University of Rhode Island