Track: Software Technology
Minitrack: Wireless Ad-Hoc and Sensor Networks

Research in the field of wireless ad-hoc and sensor networks is continuing to produce advances, both in fundamental communication among multiple wireless nodes and in application areas that include wireless mesh networks, vehicular ad-hoc networks, and the many fields in which wireless sensor networks are proving useful. The advances in the field range from purely theoretical, through many intermediate levels, all the way to determinedly practical. Specific research issues include (but are not limited to) better routing, MAC, and transport layers, physical layer(s) and their application to solving specific problems, application-specific protocols and algorithms, cross-layer protocol design, mobility, security, scalability, reliability, node configuration and auto configuration, overall cost or energy efficiency, node location or ways of dealing with position uncertainty, and specific novel applications of wireless ad-hoc networks and wireless sensor networks.

The defining property of wireless ad hoc and sensor networks is the use of wireless nodes to produce, consume, and relay data on a flexible, as-needed basis appropriate for the intended application. Although some nodes may be connected to a wider Internet, the focus of wireless ad hoc network or wireless sensor network research is the communication among generally equivalent nodes. To support the needed flexibility, the networks nodes must generally work together and self-regulate without much central control or direction, and do so automatically and reliably without substantial human intervention.

This minitrack is focused on the issues that arise in designing useful wireless sensor and ad-hoc networks. While many such networks so far have been relatively small scale, it is interesting and useful to study what happens when network sizes grow to very large sizes, as is
projected for the future. Such growth can be in overall number of nodes, in network diameter, in network density, or in other metrics.


The following is a list of research topics of interest for this minitrack:

• networking issues, including physical, MAC, routing, transport, application, or cross-layer protocols and algorithms

• novel applications of wireless ad-hoc networks or wireless sensor networks

• theoretical issues of interest in the design or implementation of wireless ad-hoc or sensor networks, including communications, energy consumption, scalability, node location and coordination

• communications security and node security, network management, data visualization, and new and better algorithms for performing node localization or dealing with position uncertainty

• novel implementations, measurement or modeling of wireless networks, and significant new deployments, hardware, or software

• any other research topics relating to wireless sensor networks, other wireless ad-hoc networks, wireless mesh networks, and mixed wireless ad-hoc and wired networks.

Minitrack Co-chairs

Edoardo Biagioni
Dept of Information and Computer Science
University of Hawaii at Manoa
Honolulu, HI 96822
Email: esb@hawaii.edu

Paulo Martins
Computer Science
Chaminade University
Honolulu, HI 96816
Email: pmartins@chaminade.edu