Wireless Sensor NetworksStudies and experiences at ISMB Torino, Italy

Edoardo Calia calia@ismb.it

Human Factors and the Digital Home WorkshopETSI, Sophia Antipolis, 22 October 2004

ISMB

• A research institution within the Torino Wireless high-tech district

• 8 Technology labs: photonics, EMC and Antennas, Telecommunications, Networking, e-security, Services and Applications, Navigation services, Microsystems and materials

• Joint management ISMB/Politecnico di Torino• 150 researchers (50 from ISMB, 100 from

Politecnico)

Wireless Sensor Networks at ISMB

• One of the most recent research areas, started at the end of 2003

• Activities performed within the Networking Lab and the Services and Applications Lab

• Cooperation with Politecnico di Torino Electronics and Computer Science departments

WSN as a “horizontal” technology

• Extremely interesting because application fields have been tested for years using wired sensor networks

• Wide number of application areas• We focus on: automotive, home

automation, e-health• Partnership with industries (STM, FIAT

Research, Motorola, Intel), Utilities and services, Public Administration

Studies at ISMB/Politecnico

• Modeling of nodes and communication channel (Politecnico)

• Simulation of nodes and communication channel (ISMB, Politecnico)

• Location services (ISMB)

• Application development (Politecnico)

• Power management (Politecnico, ISMB)

• Power-aware routing (ISMB)

Studies at ISMB on WSN• Labs Involved:

– Networking– Wireless Technologies for Multimedia

• Research Topics:– Technologies

• Energy-aware Routing (on going)• Nodes Localization (on going)• Location-aware Routing (planned, as a combination of above topics)• Network Synchronization (planned)

– Applications• Specific topics in the automotive area (on going)

• Platforms: – Crossbow WSNs (MICA2 and MICA2DOT motes)– Own simulation tools– WLAHN

M. A. Spirito / ISMB

Energy-aware Routing in WAHSNs

• Objectives: – Gain hands-on expertise on state-of –the-art WAHSN platforms– Address a representative energy-aware functionality for WAHSNs:

routing– Experimental activities from the beginning

• Status: – Gained expertise on XBow development environment, including TinyOS

operating system, NesC programming language, TinyDb application– Analyzed current XBow design choices, in particular ad-hoc networking

(discovery, network construction, routing, etc.)– NesC implementation of an energy-aware routing algorithm on XBow

platform– Performance are currently being evaluated

• Next steps: – Comparison of current energy-aware solution with existing solutions– Refinement of current energy-aware solution/implementation of

alternative strategies– Introduction of location-awareness

M. A. Spirito / ISMB

Nodes Localization in WAHSNs• Objectives:

– Develop robust and distributed algorithms for location estimation of nodes in a wireless ad-hoc (sensor) network

– Algorithms should not depend on the physical layer technology – Algorithms should work also in absence of anchor nodes– Start with analytical/simulations studies

• Status: – Few state-of-the-art location algorithms evaluated– Simulation environment built– Some algorithms, among the most promising ones, implemented in the

simulator– Preliminary analysis of algorithms performance carried out– Improvements to algorithms currently being implemented

• Next steps:– Continue comparison between algorithms – Implementation of algorithms on real platforms (WAHSNs? WLAHNs?)– Combination with routing

M. A. Spirito / ISMB

Practical experiences at ISMB

• First technology investigated: XBOW motes (pre-ZigBee)

• Open OS and application code allows testing and experimenting of new algorithms and solutions

• Experiments on power-aware routing: routing algorithm augmented with knowledge about the battery level available at potential next hops

• Localization algorithms: simulation using laptops due to the high computing power required

• Relative location estimation (no anchor point)

XBOW Motes

Practical experiences at ISMB

• E-health remote monitoring project• Non-invasive solution to keep under control

several parameters of the health status of elder people

• Wearable watch-like device including temperature, acceleration, light and pressure sensors

• Wireless communication to a residential gateway connected over the Internet to a service center

• Demonstration involving 50 devices in 2005• Partly funded by Regione Piemonte

Remote Monitoring

A student WSN lab

• Agreement with Intel Research to set up a student lab within the Networking lab at ISMB (nov-dec 2004)

• Access to students working at their MS degree and PhD program

• Focused on Wireless Sensor Networks/ XBOW• Participation of University of Turin, Politecnico di

Torino, Telecom Italia Lab, ISMB• Not an IP-oriented Lab, even though this could

be an evolution of cooperation with Intel if the student lab works out well