Wireless sensor and actuator networks are rapidly gaining major traction in a wide range of application areas. To be successful in the commercial arena however, a number of important criteria have to be met. First, it is essential that the individual transceiver nodes are tiny, easily integratable into the environment, and have negligible cost. Most importantly, the nodes must be self-contained in terms of energy via a one-time battery charge or a replenishable supply of energy scavenged from the environment. Realizing these very low power levels requires a vertical system-level design approach, engaging all levels of the design abstraction (from aggressive new circuit approaches over innovative networking and distributed computing techniques). Unfortunately, getting to the cost, size and power numbers needed for a truly ubiquitous deployment, comes with a penalty in reliability. Rather than falling back on traditional reliability enhancing techniques that compromise the energy-efficiency and cost of the individual nodes, a more effective solution is to rely on the unique nature of these networks, that is the ubiquitous availability of nodes. Doing so requires crisp and clearly defined abstraction layers. Another challenge that is often overlooked is the ease of deployment, configuration and management of the network. Again, it can argued to well defined abstraction layers go a long way in making this possible.

In this seminar series, we will traverse the wireless sensor and actuator paradigm in a bottom-up fashion. Starting from implementation constraints and properties of the wireless medium, we will explore the trade-off's at the all layers of the abstraction hierarchy up to the application layer. Metrics such as energy efficiency, robustness and ease of deployment will carry prominently throughout the semester. Real-life case studies will be used extensively.

Student participation and discussion will be an essential part of the course.

- One year of college-level calculus

- A course in linear algebra and differential equations

- A calculus-based course in probability theory and statistics (NMTH 6701)

- A course in Communications Systems

- A course in Computer Networks and Communication Protocols

- Familiarity with the C programming language is required

- Experience with TinyOS or other embedded operating systems is beneficial

- General prerequisite: Students must have the knowledge resulting from completing all coursework in the curriculum for a BS degree in Electrical Engineering from an ABET-accredited engineering program in the United States or a CEAB-accredited program in Canada, or the equivalent from a foreign institution; performance level in this coursework should be equivalent to a cumulative undergraduate GPA of 2.9 or better on 4.0 scale

- This is an advanced course featuring leading-edge topics and students are expected to have a mature understanding of the relevant disciplinary concepts.

Textbook

Recommended: Ambient Intelligence, W. Weber, J. M. Rabaey, E. Aarts (Eds)., 1st edition, 2005, Springer,  ISBN 3-540-23867-0; Protocols and Architectures for Wireless Sensor Networks, Karl Holger and Andreas Willig, 2005, John Wiley & Sons, ISBN 0-470-09510-5.