Components of an adaptive sensor network

This paper describes the components and an addressing scheme for a sensor n etwork in which the number and location of sensor nodes change dynamically A sensor network is a network composed of various sensor nodes, and a senso r node consists of one or more CPUs, sensors, and a network interface. A sensor network, an organization of sensor nodes that are embedded in a wa ll, floor, electrical equipment, and nonelectrical equipment, can be used t o support human action, the navigation of mobile robots, and other purposes . In comparison with a closed sensor network in a factory, they have the po ssibility to be moved somewhere without any notice given to the network man agement system. In order to operate such networks effectively and correctly changes of the number and location of sensor nodes must be detected. In this paper, we discuss some fundamental components of such a network, an d we call a network having these components an adaptive sensor network. The y include position-based addressing, an addressing scheme that can he gener ally applicable to the construction of such sensor network systems. With th is addressing scheme, a data value is requested by using not an identifier but a location. The client that requests the data does not care whether the re is a real sensor node at the location or not. We created a prototype of an adaptive sensor network system. It consists of a node management system, a node positioning system, and a human interface system for the sensor network. Through performance evaluation of the proto type, we concluded that it could follow dynamic changes due to either node failures or the motion of nodes. (C) 2000 Scripta Technica.