October 2004 - March 2006

The objectives of this project are to provide communications between a large number of multifunctional sensor nodes that are small in size and can communicate over short distances. A sensor network is composed of a large number of sensor nodes that are densely deployed and can sense various information either inside the observation area or very close to it. It is essential to provide a topology that can be constructed in real-time, and updated periodically as sensors fail and new sensors are deployed. The network must deal with resources (energy, bandwidth, and processing power) that are dynamically changing. The sensor nodes must be designed to allow random deployment in inaccessible terrains or disaster relief operations. These characteristics impose that sensor network protocols and algorithms possess self-organizing and self-healing capabilities. Knowledge of the network is essential for the sensors in the network to collaborate and disseminate information.

Networking Aspects:

1. Different routing mechanisms need to be investigated to accommodate a data-centric approach. Power-aware metrics, together with geographical information must also be taken in consideration to provide smart energy-saving routing protocols.
2. New communications standards and technologies and other commercial developments need to be studied to evaluate their capabilities to meet the sensor network challenges such as short-range coverage, power consumption consideration and security support.