AD HOC AND WIRELESS SENSOR NETWORKS – EC8702

Session by
Dr/L.RAJA, ASP/ECE

1
Discussions in Previous session

 Elements of Adhoc Networks

 Issues in Adhoc Network

2
Agenda of the session

 Applications of Adhoc Networks

3
 Applications –Adhoc Networks

Due to quick and economically less demanding deployment, find applications in several areas.
 Military applications,
 Collaborative and distributed computing,
 Emergency operations,
 Wireless mesh networks,
 Wireless sensor networks,
 Hybrid wireless network architectures.

4
 Military Applications
 Establishing communication among a group of soldiers - tactical operations.
 Setting up a fixed infrastructure for communication - group of soldiers in enemy
territories or in inhospitable terrains may not be possible.
 AWN provides required communication mechanism quickly.
 Coordination of military objects moving at high speeds such as fleets of airplanes or
warships.
 Such applications require quick and reliable communication.
 Secure communication is of prime importance as eavesdropping
 Require support of reliable and secure multimedia multicasting.

 Example - leader of a group of soldiers may want to give an order to all soldiers or to a set of selected personnel
involved in operation.
 Hence, routing protocol in these applications should be able to provide quick, secure, and reliable multicast
communication with support for real-time traffic.
5
 Military Applications
 Military applications require - secure communication at any cost.

 Vehicle-mounted nodes - very sophisticated and powerful.

 Multiple high-power transceivers - ability to hop between different
frequencies for security reasons.
 Communication systems - equipped with long-life batteries - not
economically viable for normal usage.
 Use other services - location tracking (GPS) or satellite-based services
for efficient communication

In short, primary nature of communication required in a military environment enforces on ad hoc

wireless networks are reliability, efficiency, secure communication, and support for multicast routin g.

6
 Collaborative & Distributive Computing
 Temporary communication infrastructure for quick communication with
minimal configuration
 Group of people in a conference or gathering necessitates formation of
an ad hoc wireless network.
 Example-consider a group of researchers who want to share their
research findings or presentation materials during a conference, or a
lecturer distributing notes to the class on the fly.
 Formation of reliable multicast routing can serve the purpose.
 Distributed file sharing applications utilized in such situations do not
require level of security expected in a military environment.
 But reliability of data transfer is of high importance.

Example - Node that is part of an AWN has to distribute a file to other nodes in the network. This application does
not demand the communication to be interruption-free, the goal of transmission is that all the desired receivers must
have replica of the transmitted file.
7
 Collaborative & Distributive Computing

 Streaming of multimedia objects among nodes in AWN

requires support for soft real-time communication.

 Users of such applications prefer economical and portable
devices (powered by battery sources.)
 Mobile node may drain its battery and can have varying
transmission power - result in unidirectional links with its neighbors.
 Devices used for such applications
 Laptops with add-on wireless interface cards,
 Enhanced personal digital assistants (PDAs),
 Mobile devices with high processing power.

8
 Emergency Operations
 Search and rescue, crowd control, and commando operations.
 Major factors
 Self-configuration with minimal overhead,
 Independent of fixed or centralized infrastructure,
 Nature of the terrain
 freedom and flexibility of mobility,
 Unavailability of conventional communication
infrastructure.
 Conventional infrastructure-based communication
facilities - destroyed due to a war or due to natural
calamities
 AWN require minimum initial network configuration for
their functioning
 Very little or no delay is involved- network fully operational.
 AWN - distributed and scalable to a large number of nodes.
 Able to provide fault tolerant communication paths 9
 Wireless Mesh Networks
 WMN - multiple nodes cooperate to relay a message to its destination.
 Mesh topology enhances overall reliability of network
 Provides many alternate paths for a data transfer session between a
source and destination
 Quick reconfiguration of path when the existing path fails due to
node failures.
 Economical data transfer capability coupled with freedom of mobility
 Deployment scenarios of wireless mesh networks include:
 Residential zones ( broadband Internet connectivity is required)
 Highways (comm. facility for moving automobiles is required),
 Business zones (alternate communication to cellular networks is
required),
 Important civilian regions
 University campuses (where inexpensive campus-wide network coverage can be provided).
10
 Wireless Mesh Networks
 Capable of self-organization and maintenance.
 Ability of the network to overcome single or multiple node failures
 Advantages
 Support for a high data rate,
 Quick and low cost of deployment,
 Enhanced services,
 High scalability,
 Easy extendability,
 High availability,
 Low cost per bit.
 WMN operate at license-free ISM bands around 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz.
 Data rates of 2 Mbps to 60 Mbps can be supported.
 WMNs provide economical communication infrastructure- both deployment and data transfer costs.

11
 Wireless Sensor Networks
 SN - special category of AWN
 Provide wireless infrastructure among sensors
deployed in a specific application domain.
 Research in AWN have made smart sensing a reality.
 Sensor nodes are
 Tiny devices
 Capability of sensing physical parameters,
 Processing the data gathered,
 Communicating over network to the monitoring
station.
 SN - collection of a large number of sensor nodes that
deployed in a particular region.
 Activity of sensing can be periodic or sporadic.
Example - periodic type - sensing of environmental factors for measurement of parameters such
as temperature, humidity, and nuclear radiation.
12
 Wireless Sensor Networks
Example - sporadic type (regularly & continuously)
 Detecting border intrusion,
 Sensing the temperature of a furnace to prevent it rising beyond a threshold,
 Measuring the stress on critical structures or machinery
 Some of domains of application for sensor networks
 Military,
 Health care,
 Home security,
 Environmental monitoring.

13
 Wireless Sensor Networks
Issues that make sensor networks a distinct category of ad hoc wireless networks

Mobility of node
Not a mandatory requirement in sensor networks(soil & patient monitoring)

 Size of the network

number of nodes can be much larger than that in a typical AWN
 Density of deployment
nodes in a sensor network varies with domain application.
 Power constraints
More stringent than those in ad hoc wireless networks.
Classified into three categories
Replenishable power source - power source can be replaced when the existing
source is fully drained - wearable sensors
Non-Replenishable power source - power source cannot be replenished once the
network has been deployed - replacement of sensor node is the only solution- sensor
nodes in a remote, hazardous terrain
14
 Wireless Sensor Networks
Issues that make sensor networks a distinct category of ad hoc wireless networks
Regenerative power source
 capability of regenerating power from physical parameter,
 power sources that can generate power by using appropriate transducers

Data/information fusion
 Aggregation of multiple packets into one before relaying
 Reducing bandwidth consumed by redundant headers of packets

 Traffic distribution
 Traffic pattern varies with the domain of application
 Sensor network employed in detecting border intrusions in a military
application generates traffic on detection of certain events

15
 Hybrid Wireless Network
• Multi-hop cellular networks (MCNs) allows
transmission through base stations or multi-hop of
mobile nodes.

• Integrated cellular ad hoc relay (iCAR) - system that

combines conventional cellular technology with Ad
hoc Relay Station (ARS) technology.

• Cellular stations will relay or reroute calls from

congested cell to an adjacent one that is not congested.
 Advantages
• Higher capacity than cellular networks
• Increased flexibility and reliability in routing
• Better coverage and connectivity
16
 Quiz/Activity/Q&A
Identify the application of AWN based on the scenarios

17
Session Handler Details
Dr.L.Raja
[email protected]
76672410124

18