[pt] Um dos principais desafios em redes de sensores sem fio (RSSF) é reduzir o consumo de energia dos nós sensores. Um método usado para economizar a bateria que alimenta os nós sensores é o duty cycling (DC) do rádio, onde o rádio fica desligado na maior parte do tempo e fica ligado por pouco tempo para verificar se existe alguma mensagem. O DC é usado com frequência em aplicações de monitoramento onde apenas uma mensagem é transmitida depois da leitura do sensor. Geralmente a leitura do sensor só volta a acontecer depois de minutos, logo poucas mensagens são transmitidas por unidade de tempo. Neste trabalho, analisamos o uso da técnica de DC em um contexto diferente, o da disseminação de código, onde várias mensagens são enviadas em um curto espaço de tempo, e que usa mensagens broadcast, ao contrário do monitoramento, que utiliza mensagens unicast. Analisamos dois algoritmos de disseminação específicos, um para um ambiente de máquinas virtuais executando nos motes, onde o código disseminado é um script com tamanho da ordem de bytes, e outro para disseminação de códigos da aplicação inteira, onde o tamanho é bem maior que no caso do script, da ordem de kbytes. O objetivo deste trabalho foi avaliar qual o impacto do DC na latência e quanto de energia foi economizado quando comparado a deixar o rádio ligado o tempo todo, que é como ambos algoritmos funcionam em sua forma original. / [en] One of the key challenges in wireless sensor networks (WSN) is to save energy at motes. One method to save battery is radio duty cycling (DC), which keeps the radio turned off in most of the time and turns the radio on for a short time to verify if any there are any messages. DC is frequently used in monitoring applications where only one message is transmitted after the mote reads its sensor. Usually the mote reads its sensor only once every few minutes, so few unicast messages are transmitted in the network per time unit. This work analyzes the use of the DC method in code dissemination. In this context, multiple broadcast messages are transmitted in a short time. We examined two specific dissemination algorithms, one of them proposed for a virtual machine environment, in which the disseminated code is a small script, and a second one originally proposed for disseminating the code of an entire application, typically much larger than a script. The objective of this study is to evaluate the impact of DC on latency and how much energy was saved when compared to leaving the radio on all the time, which is how both algorithms work in their original form.

Network coding and duty-cycling are two popular techniques for saving energy in wireless sensor networks. To the best of our knowledge, the idea to combine these two techniques, for even more aggressive energy savings, has not been explored. One explanation is that these two techniques achieve energy efficiency through conflicting means, e.g., network coding saves energy by exploiting overhearing, whereas dutycycling saves energy by cutting idle listening and, thus, overhearing. In this thesis, we thoroughly evaluate the use of network coding in duty-cycled sensor networks. We propose a scheme called DutyCode, in which a MAC protocol implements packet streaming and allows the application to decide when a node can sleep. Additionally, a novel, efficient coding scheme decision algorithm, ECSDT, assists DutyCode to reduce further energy consumption by minimizing redundant packet transmissions, while an adaptive mode switching algorithm allows smooth and timely transition between DutyCode and the default MAC protocol, without any packet loss. We investigate our solution analytically, implement it on mote hardware, and evaluate it in a 42-node indoor testbed. Performance evaluation results show that our scheme saves 30-46% more energy than solutions that use network coding, without using duty-cycling.

Les contraintes présentes dans les réseaux de capteurs impliquent l'introduction de techniques d'optimisation à différents niveaux de conception : du matériel au logiciel et dans la pile de communication. En effet, le déploiement des réseaux de capteurs, à faible consommation énergétique, exige une conception conjointe du matériel et du logiciel adaptée à l'application visée. Étant donné la nature évènementielle et multitâche des applications dans les réseaux de capteurs, nous pourrions penser à rajouter différentes unités de traitement qui coopèrent pour gérer les évènements et les tâches de manière optimale. Ainsi, la complexité des tâches accomplies par le processeur principal peut être réduite, ce qui contribue à atteindre l'efficacité énergétique. Dans cette thèse nous étudions un ensemble de protocoles qui facilitent l'implémentation des smart radios. L'idée principale des smart radios est l'introduction de l'intelligence dans la puce radio de manière à ce qu'elle soit capable de prendre des décisions ainsi que d'exécuter plusieurs tâches de manière autonome et sans l'intervention du processeur principal. Cette dernière sera responsable du bootstrap du réseau et, après qu'un état stable est atteint, le processeur peut rester inactif la plupart du temps, alors que la puce radio continue à fournir un ensemble de services. Le protocole proposé est appelé Wake on Idle et il fournit la maintenance de voisinage intégrée avec une méthode d'accès au canal. Ces services sont basés sur des transmissions analogiques qui sont codées dans le temps. De cette manière, dès que le réseau entre dans l'état stable (c.à.d. la topologie est formée et les noeuds sont associés et synchronisés), le traitement numérique de trames n'est pas nécessaire. Puisque Wake on Idle est basé sur des informations de bas niveau, il peut être facilement intégré dans la puce radio et fonctionner comme un coprocesseur qui fournit des services de haut niveau au processeur principal, comme la maintenance du voisinage et l'accès au canal. Grâce à une analyse théorique et une implémentation préliminaire, nous démontrons la faisabilité du protocole et nous montrons plusieurs caractéristiques intéressantes qui aident à atteindre l'efficacité énergétique et de bonnes performances. Ensuite, nous exploitons la signalisation analogique afin d'optimiser le duty-cycle des protocoles d'accès au canal existants. Nous proposons également un mécanisme appelé Sleep on Idle qui est basé sur l'échange de signaux analogiques ou busy tones. Sleep on Idle peut être intégré dans la radio et il peut décider quand le processeur doit être réveillé. Enfin, nous avons intégré le mécanisme de notification dans le standard IEEE802.15.4 et nous avons évalué ce mécanisme par des simulations et expérimentations. Les résultats montrent un gain important en termes de consommation en énergie et de réactivité du réseau. / The constraints of Wireless Sensor Networks scenarios require the introduction of optimization techniques at different design levels: from the hardware to the software and communication protocol stack. In fact, the design of energy efficient WSNs involves an appropriate hardware/software co-design oriented to the concerned application. Given the event driven and multitasking nature of WSNs applications, one could think of adding different processing units that cooperate to manage events and tasks in an optimal way. Then, the complexity of tasks performed by the main processing unit can be reduced and energy efficiency can be achieved. In this PhD thesis we study protocols that leverage the implementation of smart radios. The idea of smart radios is introducing intelligence into the radio chip; in this way, it will be able to take decisions and perform several tasks in an autonomous way and without any intervention of the main processing unit. The processing unit will be in charge of bootstrapping the network and, after a stable state is reached, it can remain inactive most of the time while the radio chip provides a given set of services. The proposed protocol is called Wake on Idle and it provides integrated neighborhood maintenance and low duty-cycle medium access control. These services are provided based on analog transmissions that are time encoded; then, as soon as the network enters the stable state (i.e. the topology is formed and nodes are associated and synchronized) digital processing of frames is not needed. Since it relies on low-level information, Wake on Idle can be easily implemented on hardware and integrated into the radio chip; then, it works as a coprocessor that provides high-level services (i.e. neighborhood maintenance and medium access) to the main processing unit. Through theoretical analysis and a preliminary implementation we demonstrate the feasibility of the protocol and we show several interesting characteristics that help achieving energy efficiency and good performance. Then, we further exploit analog signaling to optimize duty cycle of existing medium access control protocols. We propose a mechanism called Sleep on Idle and it is based on the exchange of analog busy tones. Sleep on Idle can also be integrated into the smart radio to take decisions about whether the main processing unit has to be woken up. We apply the decision mechanism to the slotted ieee802.15.4 standard and validate it through simulations and experimentations. The results show an important gain in terms of energy consumption and network reactivity.

Wireless sensor networks are often battery powered and therefore their power consumption is of critical importance. Power requirements can be reduced by switching off radios when they are not needed and by using multi-hop communications to reduce the length of the radio links. Multi-hop communications however require message routing through the network. The Routing Protocol for lossy networks (RPL) has been designed by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) for seamless integration of wireless sensor networks in the Internet. For switching on and off radios, radio duty cycling (RDC) protocols have been added to the traditional medium access control (MAC) protocols. Despite the fact they belong to different layers in the communications stack, it is intuitively clear that the choice of a specific RDC protocol for saving energy can influence the performances of RPL. Exploring experimentally this influence was the initial goal of this research. A 25 nodes wireless sensor network using Zolertia Z1 motes and the Contiki software was used for this investigation. Performance measurements without RDC protocol and with the three different RDC protocols readily available in Contiki were organized and the results of the experiments were compared. Unfortunately, with all three RDC protocols, serious malfunctions obscured the experimental results. Those malfunctions did not show up in absence of a RDC protocol and they could not be reproduced by our simulation studies. To tackle this issue, the behavior of the RDC protocols was scrutinized by means of experimental set-ups that eliminated as much as possible all non RDC related issues. Many, quite varied, malfunctions were discovered which all could have caused the observed RPL issues. Further research and better experimental set-ups made clear that all the discovered RDC malfunctions could be attributed to two real-world facts that were not considered by the implementers of the Contiki RDC protocols. The first cause is the small frequency difference between hardware real time clocks in stand-alone motes. The second is that the threshold built in the receiver to detect radio activity is much higher than the minimum level of signal that the same receiver can decode. Work-arounds have been designed for the observed malfunctions and they have been tested by means of a systematic comparison of the performance of the three modified RDC protocols. / Doctorat en Sciences de l'ingénieur et technologie / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

Les réseaux de capteurs sans fil constituent une partie essentielle de la couche " perception " de l'Internet des objets (IoT ou Internet of Things), et reconnectent le monde numérique créée par les réseaux informatiques classiques au monde physique. Ils font émerger sans cesse de nouvelles applications grâce à un nombre important d'éléments, qui collectent des données de l'environnement, les traitent et les disséminent. Aujourd'hui, circulent dans l'IoT des volumes de données importants, très variés et souvent générés de façon continue mettant plus l'accent sur l'information et non sur sa source. Cette indifférence sur la source est renforcée par les déploiements interchangeables et redondants des réseaux de capteurs. Dans cette thèse, nous nous attachons à l'intégration des principes et mécanismes des réseaux orientés contenus dans les réseaux de capteurs sans fil afin d'améliorer le fonctionnement et les performances de ces derniers. Nous nous sommes intéressés, dans un premier temps, à la pertinence temporelle des données dans les réseaux de capteurs centrés sur les contenus. En effet, nous avons opté pour la prise en considération de la durée de vie (ou fraîcheur) des contenus et proposé deux approches (une réactive et l'autre proactive) pour leur mise à jour. Dans la seconde partie de la thèse, nous avons proposé un mécanisme fondé sur le contrôle du duty-cycle afin d'atténuer l'impact de l'inondation principalement utilisée pour disséminer les intérêts envoyés par les utilisateurs et les contenus correspondant. Pour cela, nous avons cherché à maintenir un sous-ensemble suffisant de nœuds nécessaires à la satisfaction des intérêts reçus par le réseau. Le défi principal était de réduire la consommation d'énergie grâce à un mécanisme d'endormissement/réveil des nœuds capteurs tout en gardant un bon taux de satisfaction des requêtes. Enfin, pour améliorer la mise en cache des contenus dans un réseau de capteurs, nous avons étudié les stratégies existantes et recensé les paramètres impactant leur performance. Nous avons ensuite proposé une stratégie plaçant les contenus sur des nœuds en fonction de leur degré et leur distance de la source. Une compagne de simulations et des comparaisons avec d'autres solutions, montrent que les mécanismes proposés garantissent de bonnes performances en termes de latence, de consommation d'énergie et de taux de satisfaction des intérêts. / Wireless sensor networks are an essential part of the Internet of Things (IoT) "perception" layer. IoT connects the digital world created by conventional computer networks to the physical world. They continually bring new applications to life through a large number of elements that collect, process and disseminate environmental data. Today, moves accross the IoT a large and varied volume of data. Data is generated in a continuous way with a greater emphasis on information and not on its source. This indifference to the source is reinforced by the interchangeable and redundant deployments of the sensor networks. In this thesis, we focus on integrating the principles and mechanisms of content-oriented networks in wireless sensor networks to improve the operation and performance of these networks. Hence, we first focused on the temporal relevance of data in content-centric sensor networks. Indeed, we considered the content lifetime (or freshness) and we proposed two approaches (one reactive and the other proactive) for their update. In the second part of the thesis, we proposed a mechanism based on the control of the duty-cycle to overcome the impact of the flooding mainly used to disseminate the interests sent by the users and the corresponding contents. For this purpose, we tried to maintain a sufficient subset of nodes necessary to satisfy the interests received by the network. The main challenge was to reduce energy consumption thanks to a mechanism controlling the node activity while keeping a good interest satisfaction rate. Finally, to improve the content caching in a sensor network, we have studied the existing strategies and identified the parameters impacting their performance. We then proposed a strategy placing the contents according to the degree of the nodes and their distance from the source. An exhaustive comparative study with other solutions show that the proposed mechanisms guarantee good performance in terms of latency, energy consumption and interest satisfaction rate.

Computers and their constituent electronics continue to shrink. The same amount of work can be done with increasingly smaller and cheaper components that need less power to function than before. In wireless sensor networks, the energy needed by one sensor node borders the amount that is already present in its immediate surroundings. Equipping the electronics with a micro generator or energy harvester gives the possibility that it can become self-sufficient in energy. In this thesis two kinds of energy harvesters are investigated. One absorbs vibrations and converts them into electricity by means of piezo-electricity. The other converts heat flow through a semiconductor to electricity, utilizing a thermoelectric effect. Principles governing the performance, actual performance of off-the-shelf components and design considerations of the energy harvester have been treated. The thermoelectric micro generator has been measured to output power at 2.7 mW and 20°C with a load of 10 W. The piezoelectric micro generator has been measured to output power at 2.3 mW at 56.1 Hz, with a mechanical trim weight and a load of 565 W. In these conditions the power density of the generators lies between 2-3 W/m2.

The Internet of Things (IoT) is widely adopted across various fields due to its flexibility and low cost. Energy-harvesting Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) are becoming a building block of many IoT applications and provide a perpetual source of energy to power energy-constrained IoT devices. However, the dynamic and stochastic nature of the available harvested energy drives the need for adaptive energy management solutions. Duty cycling is among the most prominent adaptive approaches that help consolidate the effort of energy management solutions at the routing and application layers to ensure energy sustainability and, hence, continuous network operation.  The IEEE 802.15.4 standard defines the physical layer and the Medium Access Control (MAC) sub-layer of low-data-rate wireless devices with limited energy consumption requirements. The MAC sub-layer’s functionalities include the scheduling of the duty cycle of individual devices. However, the scheduling of the duty cycle is left open to the industry. Various computational mechanisms are used to compute the duty cycle of IoT nodes to ensure optimal performance in energy sustainability and Quality of Service (QoS). Reinforcement Learning (RL) is the most employed mechanism in this context.  The literature depicts various RL-based solutions to adjust the duty cycle of IoT devices to adapt to changes in the IoT environment. However, these solutions are usually tailored to specific scenarios or focus mainly on one aspect of the problem, namely QoS performance or energy limitation. This work proposes a generic adaptive duty cycling solution and evaluates its performance under different energy generation and traffic conditions. Moreover, it emphasizes the energy sustainability aspect while taking the QoS performance into account.  While different approaches exist to achieve energy sustainability, Energy Neutral Operation (ENO)-based solutions provide the most prominent approach to ensure energy-sustainable performance. Nevertheless, these approaches do not necessarily guarantee optimal performance in QoS. This work adopts a Markov Decision Process (MDP) model from the literature that aims to minimize the distance from energy neutrality given the energy harvesting and ENO conditions. We introduce QoS penalties to the reward formulation to improve QoS performance.  We start by examining the performance in QoS against the benchmarking solution. Then, we analyze the performance using different energy harvesting and consumption profiles to further assess QoS performance and determine if energy sustainability is still maintained under different conditions. The results prove more efficient utilization of harvested energy when available in abundance. However, one limitation to our solution occurs when energy demand is high, or harvested energy is scarce. In such cases, we observe degradation in QoS due to IoT nodes adopting a low-duty cycle to avoid energy depletion. We further study the effect this limitation has on the solution's scalability. We also attempt to address this problem by assessing the performance using a routing solution that balances load distribution and, hence, energy demand across the network.

Benefiting from the constant and significant advancement of wireless communication technologies and networking protocols, Wireless Ad hoc NETwork (WANET) has played a more and more important role in modern communication networks without relying much on existing infrastructures. The past decades have seen numerous applications adopting ad hoc networks for service provisioning. For example, Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) can be widely deployed for environment monitoring and object tracking by utilizing low-cost, low-power and multi-function sensor nodes. To realize such applications, the design and evaluation of communication protocols are of significant importance. Meanwhile, the network performance analysis based on mathematical models is also in great need of development and improvement. This dissertation investigates the above topics from three important and fundamental aspects, including data collection protocol design, protocol modeling and analysis, and physical interference modeling and analysis. The contributions of this dissertation are four-fold. First, this dissertation investigates the synchronization issue in the duty-cycled, pipelined-scheduling data collection of a WSN, based on which a pipelined data collection protocol, called PDC, is proposed. PDC takes into account both the pipelined data collection and the underlying schedule synchronization over duty-cycled radios practically and comprehensively. It integrates all its components in a natural and seamless way to simplify the protocol implementation and to achieve a high energy efficiency and low packet delivery latency. Based on PDC, an Adaptive Data Collection (ADC) protocol is further proposed to achieve dynamic duty-cycling and free addressing, which can improve network heterogeneity, load adaptivity, and energy efficiency. Both PDC and ADC have been implemented in a pioneer open-source operating system for the Internet of Things, and evaluated through a testbed built based on two hardware platforms, as well as through emulations. Second, Linear Sensor Network (LSN) has attracted increasing attention due to the vast requirements on the monitoring and surveillance of a structure or area with a linear topology. Being aware that, for LSN, there is few work on the network modeling and analysis based on a duty-cycled MAC protocol, this dissertation proposes a framework for modeling and analyzing a class of duty-cycled, multi-hop data collection protocols for LSNs. With the model, the dissertation thoroughly investigates the PDC performance in an LSN, considering both saturated and unsaturated scenarios, with and without retransmission. Extensive OPNET simulations have been carried out to validate the accuracy of the model. Third, in the design and modeling of PDC above, the transmission and interference ranges are defined for successful communications between a pair of nodes. It does not consider the cumulative interference from the transmitters which are out of the contention range of a receiver. Since most performance metrics in wireless networks, such as outage probability, link capacity, etc., are nonlinear functions of the distances among communicating, relaying, and interfering nodes, a physical interference model based on distance is definitely needed in quantifying these metrics. Such quantifications eventually involve the Nodal Distance Distribution (NDD) intrinsically depending on network coverage and nodal spatial distribution. By extending a tool in integral geometry and using decomposition and recursion, this dissertation proposes a systematic and algorithmic approach to obtaining the NDD between two nodes which are uniformly distributed at random in an arbitrarily-shaped network. Fourth, with the proposed approach to NDDs, the dissertation presents a physical interference model framework to analyze the cumulative interference and link outage probability for an LSN running the PDC protocol. The framework is further applied to analyze 2D networks, i.e., ad hoc Device-to-Device (D2D) communications underlaying cellular networks, where the cumulative interference and link outage probabilities for both cellular and D2D communications are thoroughly investigated. / Graduate / 0984 / 0544 / tong1987fei@163.com