Sensor Networks: Interference Reduction and Possible Applications

There are still a lot of open questions in the field of sensor networks. In the first part we address the problem of interference. Energy consumption in general and interference in particular being among the most critical issues in sensor networks, we introduce an explicit definition of interference, based on the number of other nodes by which a given network node can be disturbed. With this definition we show that there exist instances of sensor networks on which no Topology Control algorithm can construct a valid data gathering network with interference less than logarithmic in the number of network nodes n. Our Nearest Component Connector (NCC) algorithm, asymptotically matches this lower bound, and guarantees to build a valid topology with interference in O(log n). A comparison of NCC with other previously proposed data gathering structures brings us to the end of part one. In a second part we have a look at tasks in sensor networks which go beyond simple data gathering. Practical implementations with ScatterWeb nodes illustrate possible applications.