An architecture for on-demand wireless sensor networks

Majority of the Sensor networks consist of low-cost autonomously powered devices, and are used to collect data in physical world. Today's sensor network deployments are mostly application specific & owned by a particular entity. Because of this application specific nature & the ownership boundaries, this modus operandi hinders large scale sensing & overall network operational capacity. The main goal of this research work is to create a mechanism to dynamically form personal area networks based on mote class devices spanning ownership boundaries. When coupled with an overlay based control system, this architecture can be conveniently used by a remote client to dynamically create sensor networks (personal area network based) even when the client does not own a network. The nodes here are "borrowed" from existing host networks & the application related to the newly formed network will co-exist with the native applications thanks to concurrency. The result allows users to embed a single collection tree onto spatially distant networks as if they were within communication range. This implementation consists of core operating system & various other external components that support injection maintenance & dissolution sensor network applications at client's request. A large object data dissemination protocol was designed for reliable application injection. The ability of this system to remotely reconfigure a network is useful given the high failure rate of real-world sensor network deployments. Collaborative sensing, various physical phenomenon monitoring also be considered as applications of this architecture.