Research Area:  Wireless Sensor Networks

Abstract:

   The success of future Internet-of-Things (IoT) based application deployments depends on the ability of wireless sensor platforms to sustain uninterrupted operation based on: (i) environmental energy harvesting and optimised coupling with the platform’s energy consumption when processing and transmitting/receiving data; (ii) spontaneous adaptation to changes in the local network topology without requiring central coordination. To address the first aspect, starting from practical deployments of a multi-transducer platform for photovoltaic and piezoelectric energy harvesting and the associated modelling and analysis, data-driven probability models are derived to facilitate the optimal coupling of energy production and consumption when processing and transmitting data.
   To address the second aspect (adaptability), the new concept of decentralized time-synchronized channel swapping (DT-SCS) is proposed – a novel protocol for the medium access control (MAC) layer of IEEE 802.15.4-based wireless sensor networks (WSNs). Simulation results reveal that DT-SCS comprises an excellent candidate for completely decentralized MAC layer coordination in WSNs by providing quick convergence to steady state, high bandwidth utilization, high connectivity, robustness to interference and low energy consumption. Moreover, performance results via a Contiki-OS based deployment on TelosB motes reveal that DT-SCS comprises an excellent candidate for a decentralized multichannel MAC layer.

Name of the Researcher:  George Christopher Smart

Name of the Supervisor(s):  Yiannis Andreopoulos

Year of Completion:  2017

University:  University College London

Thesis Link:   Home Page Url