Localization and tracking services in wireless sensor

networks

Vlter Rocha
Agilus I+D Instituto Agilus de Inovao em Tecnologia de Informao, S.A.
Rua Dr. Afonso Cordeiro 877, sala 202, 4450-007, Matosinhos, Portugal
valter.rocha@iaiti.pt
PRODEI - Doctoral Program in Informatics Engineering, Faculty of Engineering of the
University of Porto
Rua Dr. Roberto Frias, s/n, 4200-465 Porto, Portugal
valter.rocha@fe.up.pt

Advisors:
Eugnio Oliveira
Informatics Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto
Rua Dr. Roberto Frias, s/n, 4200-465 Porto, Portugal
eco@fe.up.pt

Gil Gonalves
Informatics Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto
Rua Dr. Roberto Frias, s/n, 4200-465 Porto, Portugal
gil.goncalves@fe.up.pt

17th of September of de 2008

Abstract. Wireless sensor network (WSNs) is a demanding multidisciplinary

field that has been target of research in the last decade. The increasing demand
for security and automated monitoring of things and places makes WSNs a
promising technology although there are still many open research contributions
needed to make this the standard of environmental sensing. The goal of this research is to provide the scientific community with a scalable, more precise and
faster new localization and tracking algorithm. This algorithm should be flexible enough to be used both in WSNs and in other wireless applications. To
achieve the results expected, the most successful algorithms are being studied
and a scale-up approach will be followed. The development will begin by the
simplest case scenario: relative inter-node localization in a 2D environment
with no interferences. As progresses are made, the electromagnetic reflections
and absorptions will be studied. Then the study will focus on a 3D environment
and finally in an absolute positioning in 2D and 3D environments with tracking
algorithms for mobile nodes. Statistic methods will assess the quality of the algorithm and compare it with the state of the art ones. An energy efficient network requires a good routing protocol and geo-referenced algorithms play an
important role in this quest for power saving. For that purpose, a precise
localization and tracking algorithm is of a great importance and may determine
the success of a WSN.
Key Words: Localization and tracking algorithms, ad Hoc Networks, Wireless
Sensor Networks, WSN: Pervasive Networking, Mesh Networking.

Contents:
1
2

Introduction ..................................................................................................... 4
Overview and motivation ................................................................................ 4
2.1.
Historical Overview (IT revolutions)...................................................... 5
2.2.
Real Worlds Needs ................................................................................ 6
2.3.
Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) ........................................................ 7
3
Related work / State of the art ......................................................................... 8
3.1.
Design Space .......................................................................................... 8
3.2.
WSNs - Node Architecture ................................................................... 11
3.3.
WSNs - Network Architecture.............................................................. 13
3.4.
Challenges and Opportunities ............................................................... 15
4
Scientific research objectives ........................................................................ 18
5
Research methodology and Work Plan.......................................................... 19
5.1.
A1 Curricular Year ............................................................................ 20
5.2.
A2 Related Work ............................................................................... 20
5.3.
A3 Requirements and Specifications ................................................. 21
5.4.
A4 Development and Testing ............................................................ 22
5.5.
A5 Elaboration of the thesis............................................................... 23
5.6.
Work Plan ............................................................................................. 23
6
Potential contributions (Implications of Research)........................................ 24
7
Conclusions ................................................................................................... 24
Acknowledgment ................................................................................................... 25
References.............................................................................................................. 25

Figures:
Figure 1 - Gordon E. Moores Handwritten Sketch (1965)...................................... 5
Figure 2 Relationship between Technology and real worlds needs ..................... 7
Figure 3 Moteiv Telos Rev A Architecture .................................................. 12
Figure 4 WSNs - Network Architecture.............................................................. 13
Figure 5 - Work Plan Structure and interdependencies (Pert diagram).................. 19
Figure 6 Wireless Sensor Framework Architecture ............................................ 22
Figure 7 Gantt chart ............................................................................................ 23

Tables:
Table 1 In Situ Vs Remote Sensing ...................................................................... 5
Table 2 Relevant factors for the requirements specification ............................... 22

Introduction

Embedded devices have been part of our lives for the last 50 years but just recently
the advances in semi-conductor technology, low power wireless radios and MEMS
(Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems) technologies have enabled the production of
cost effective, low-power, and small scale devices. These devices can be deployed
throughout a physical space, providing sensing, processing and communicating
capabilities.
WSNs are the breakthrough approach based on networks of devices that can be
densely deployed in human aggressive and inaccessible environments, to sense and
instrument the environment and monitor with high accuracy physical phenomena.
Each one of these devices is called a sensor node. Each node should not be larger
than a few square millimeters and its target cost is less than US$1.00, including radio,
microcontroller, power supply and sensor (capable of sensing temperature, light,
vibration, sound, etc.).
To realize the opportunities created by this concept, information technology must
address a new collection of challenges. The individual nodes in a WSN are inherently
resource constrained: They have limited processing speed, storage capacity, and
communication bandwidth. These devices have substantial processing capability in
the aggregate, but not individually, so we must be able to combine their many capabilities within the network itself. Due to the multidisciplinary nature of WSNs, these
challenges are somehow disperse. Consequently each study on the topic presents a
view on existing challenges and difficulties present in a certain field.
In order to present these challenges in a systematic way, a structured approach was
followed. This approach was based on the work presented in [1] where the need for
standardization in order to coordinate efforts and encourage developments in this area
is discussed.
Some of the most significant challenges and opportunities are herein addressed to
help the scientific community identify and choose roads ahead.
This document is organized in 8 sections: Sections 2 makes an overview and explains
the motivation behind the thesis. Section 3 describes the related work, referring some
of the most important papers and authors in wireless sensor networks field. Section 4
presents the scientific research objectives. Section 5 explains the research
methodology chosen and the Work Plan. Section 6 referres the potential contributions
and finally Section 7 concludes this thesis proposal by discussing the preliminary results and previewing the next steps to be followed.

Overview and motivation

Nowadays, everywhere we go we are in the presence of sensors. Either the presence

detector of our home or the temperature of our office or even the police radar when
we are late for an appointment, are always measuring some variable of our environment.
Measuring and sensing provide information to make sound decisions (economics,
ecology, security, health, etc. use this information to achieve good results in each

field). Measuring and sensing devices are classified as either in-situ or remote. The
comparison between both is made in Table 1.
In situ
in direct contact with the medium they are
sensing

Remote sensing
Not in direct contact, involves observing
objects indirectly (actively or passively)

Thermometer, ...

Radar, ...

Table 1 In Situ Vs Remote Sensing

The focus of this research will be on In Situ monitoring. WSNs characterize for their
flexibility and multi-environment capability so they can be deployed virtually anywhere providing in-situ measures by broadcasting the data out of the environment.
2.1. Historical Overview (IT revolutions)
2.1.1. Moores Law (1972)
As we can see in Figure 1 in 1965 Moore stated that:

The number of transistors on a cost-effective chip:

o processing power
o storage capacity
of that chip, doubles every year or two

Figure 1 - Gordon E. Moores Handwritten Sketch (1965)

And actually the number of transistors per chip doubles every 12-18 months which
confirms the enormous speed that the micro-controllers are evolving.
2.1.2. Bells Law of Computer Classes (1972)
In 1972 Bell stated that Roughly every decade a new, lower priced computer class
forms based on a new programming platform, network, and interface resulting in new
usage and the establishment of a new industry
This means that the progress made in the computer classes leads to the extinction
of the former classes and the appearance of new market opportunities to the new ones.
As of 2005, the computer classes include:
Mainframes (1960s)
Minicomputers (1970s)
Personal computers and workstations evolving into a network enabled by Local
Area Networking or Ethernet (1980s)
Web browser client-server structures enabled by the Internet (1990s)
Web services, e.g. Microsoft's .NET (2000s) or the Grid
Small form-factor devices such as cell phones and other cell phone sized devices
(CPSD), e.g. Blackberries, iPods, Smartphones, and Tros (c. 2000)
Wireless Sensor Networks, aka motes (c. >2005)
2.2. Real Worlds Needs
The worlds need for monitoring has increasing since the recent attacks to critical infrastructures. Monitoring is now ubiquitous and could be present in:
Monitoring space (environmental and habitat monitoring, precision agriculture)
Monitoring things (indoor climate control, surveillance and intelligent alarms)
Monitoring space and things (the interactions of things with each other and the
surrounding space):
o Wildlife habitats;
o Disaster management
o Emergency response
o Ubiquitous computing environments;
o Asset tracking
o Healthcare
o Manufacturing process flow
Research projects that involve WSNs are on their way for
o Military applications
o Environmental observation
o Intruder surveillance
o Structural monitoring (bridges, tunnels, buildings, dams)
o Civil protection and disaster management
o Personal healthcare networks and elder care

The relationship between what technologies offers and what are the real requirements for monitoring is illustrated in Figure 2 Relationship between Technology
and real worlds needsFigure 2:

Figure 2 Relationship between Technology and real worlds needs

2.3. Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs)
When speaking in WSNs some questions arise:
What are WSNs?
WSNs are Network of devices that can be easily deployed in human aggressive and
inaccessible environments to sense, instrument and monitor physical phenomena with
high accuracy and low cost.
Why use WSNs?
The demand for monitoring and sensing (ecology, security, health, biology, etc.) is
rising quickly and revolutionary Applications: monitoring places; monitoring things;
interactive environments are now possible to implement.
The recent advances in technology implied the increase of:
Processing power;
Memory storage.
And the decrease of:
Chip costs;

Chip sizes;

Microcontroller Units (MCUs) are now:

Low-power;
Cost effective;
Small scale devices
Low power wireless radios;
MEMS (Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems);

Related work / State of the art

3.1. Design Space

Although WSNs share common problems and solutions with embedded systems and
ad hoc networks in what concerns hardware and network issues, there are new
challenges that rise from the fact that these devices are resource constrained.
Several researchers approach the design of WSNs on an application oriented basis
while others, like for example Rmer and Mattern [1], structure such challenges in
classes and name this structure The Design Space of Wireless Sensor Networks.
Based on this work, I propose my simplified yet complete vision of the design space
by refactoring the one proposed in [1]. Some proposed design space dimensions like
deployment, coverage and network size or network topology and connectivity relate
to the same problem influencing each other, therefore should not be dissociated.
Others like Application requirements and Environment interaction that relate to the
application specific needs should be introduced to further improve the design
concepts on WSNs.
3.1.1. Application requirements and Environment interaction
Application specific requirements define almost every other topic in WSNs. The large
amount of heterogeneous sensor nodes can be used freely to create many different
solutions. There is no such thing as a general solution still research should keep
generalization in mind.
As WSNs are environmental event-driven, their activity graph can vary a lot during
time. While most of the time activity is very low, when some environmental change
occurs events come in bursts and can generate traffic problems.
3.1.2. Network Dynamics
The deployment and mobility of nodes affect the network topology as there is
uncertainty on the nodes location and density. Moreover, some nodes can be deployed
or arrive to a specific network, attached to an object or by their own means, becoming
active members and making deployment a continuous process. This forces the
network protocols to be flexible and dynamic in order to react to the different

demands of applications. Also the degree and speed of movement can influence in the
time the nodes are available and therefore their usability in the network.
3.1.3. Cost, Size, Resources, Energy and Lifetime
The application design requirements determine the size, cost and energy
specifications. While some applications may need thousands of simple nodes, highly
resource constrained, others could require just some specialized and complex nodes or
a mix of the two solutions. Similarly the price of each node can vary from as low as
1 to 1000 or even more.
Energy resources, and consequently the WSN lifetime, are directly dependant on
cost and size factors as the size of the batteries or harvesting devices is directly
proportional to the amount of energy they accumulate or generate. Also computing
power and storage depend on the price, although currently this is not such a relevant
issue because used Microcontroller Units and flash storage chips are at a very low
price.
The amount of resources available at the nodes is also a determinant factor in the
degree of complexity of each sensor nodes embedded software and possibly with the
entire networks routing and processing capabilities.
3.1.4. Heterogeneity and Complexity
Sensor networks can be deployed in practically any scenario and may require many
types of distinct sensor nodes to accomplish the expected results. Differences in nodes
range from computing power to size, sensor specialization or mobility.
The more heterogeneous the network is, the more powerful and generic it becomes.
But on the other hand, more robust and complex routing and communications
protocols it requires.
Heterogeneous networks may use nodes with high processing capabilities or high
energy resources to distribute processing efforts and power usage amongst the
network nodes.
Typical configurations use a more powerful specialized node (sink node) to
transmit data generated in the network to a computer source via internet,
GPRS/UMTS, and possibly providing position by means of a GPS device.
3.1.5. Infrastructure and Communication Modality
As infrastructures are very expensive and sometimes impossible to deploy, Ad Hoc
networks are becoming the standard in WSNs. While in the first case,
communications are made via the base station, in the second, nodes communicate
with each other directly without the need for an infrastructure. Nodes usually serve as
routers, forwarding messages hop-by-hop on behalf of other nodes.
In both cases several communication modalities can be used: radio, diffuse light,
laser, inductive and capacitive coupling or sound. The most common is radio
transmission because it doesnt need line of sight which is a requirement in many
applications.

3.1.6. Network Topology and connectivity

The application requirements play an important role in the Network Topology by
defining either if the sensor coverage (area of interest covered by sensor nodes)
should be dense or sparse, if the network should be more or less dynamic and the
deployment area wide or narrow. A dense coverage is used if more accuracy and
redundancy is required. The redundant sensor nodes could be used to make the
network more robust replacing dead nodes or managing power savings between
nodes by entering sleep mode. If the application requires mobility or a random
deployment of some sensor nodes, the protocols have to be more dynamic to cope
with the changes experienced in the network.
The Network Topology depends on its Diameter (max number of hops between
any two nodes) and size (number of nodes) determined by the specific requirements.
The simplest topology is the single-hop network where every sensor can
communicate directly to all the other nodes. A most elaborated topology is needed
when nodes cant reach at least one node. To be able to communicate to a non
reachable node, other nodes are used as routers. This is called multihop networking.
In some applications on top of the arbitrary graph generated by the multihop network
there is a simpler overlay structure that forms an organized tree or set of connected
stars.
Data routing, distributed processing, latency and robustness are affected by the
topology of the network.
The topology of the network and communications hardware ranges can influence
the connectivity of the network. If every node can reach any node, the network is
connected. If the nodes are arranged in partitions and a mobile node provides
communication occasionally, the communication is called sporadic. Communications
protocols are influenced by connectivity.
3.1.7. Quality of Service (QoS)
QoS refers to the capability of a network to provide better service to selected network
traffic over various technologies. A sensor network should provide the necessary
quality of service to cope with the application needs. For example, if the application
requires real-time access to data the network should be designed to support such
feature. Minimal QOS requires that the network should always be operative and
immune to: failures (robustness), deliberate attacks (tamper-resistance),
Communications eavesdropping, and detection (unobtrusiveness or stealth). Moreover
the network should provide the means to control and efficiently use network
resources.
3.1.8. Applications for Sensor Networks
Such an enabling technology provides means for many new types of applications to
become implementable. As described in [2], applications can be classified in three
classes: i) monitoring space (environmental and habitat monitoring); ii) monitoring
things (precision agriculture, indoor climate control, surveillance, treaty verification,

and intelligent alarms); and iii) monitoring space and things (the interactions of things
with each other and the encompassing space, the most complex interactions, including
monitoring wildlife habitats, disaster management, emergency response, ubiquitous
computing environments, asset tracking, healthcare, and manufacturing process flow).
Research projects that involve WSNs are on their way for military applications,
environmental observation, intruder surveillance, bridge and tunnels structure
monitoring, civil protection applications and many others. Examples on research
activities are the system for bird observation on Great Duck Island [3], ZEBRANET
[4], Glacier Monitoring [5], Cattle Herding [6], Bathymetry [7], Ocean Water
Monitoring [8], Grape Monitoring [9], Cold Chain Management [10], Rescue of
Avalanche Victims [11], Vital Sign Monitoring [12], Power Monitoring [13], Parts
Assembly [14], Tracking Military Vehicles [15], Self-Healing Mine Field [16], Sniper
Localization [17], Early Warning Fire Detection [18].
WSNs need to be designed to accomplish low cost, low power solutions. Both
hardware platforms and network protocols have to be well suited to the intrinsic
constraints of this new technology and, in the near future, when the cost and size
problems are overcome, many other applications will become feasible.
3.2. WSNs - Node Architecture
3.2.1. Hardware design
A typical hardware configuration for a wireless sensor node is composed of a microcontroller, data storage, radio / optical / ultra-sound transceiver, power supply and
sensors.
The Micro-Controller Unit (MCU) is usually an Atmel or Texas Instruments, with
analog-to-digital converters (ADCs), and SPI, I2C, as I/O inputs to interface with
sensors and actuators.
The size and low power constraints limit the amount of the on-chip storage.
Typically MCUs reach 50 Kbytes of RAM for data and 512 Kbytes of ROM for
program storage. However, small size Flash memory is getting cheaper and provides
large amount of data storage for a low cost. Still the power consumption of such
devices reaches 100mW or even more when in high speed write procedure so this has
to be taken into account when designing the node.
Infineon or Chipcon radio devices are usually used in WSNs. The digital
modulation techniques more common are amplitude-shift-keying (ASK) and
frequency-shift-keying (FSK) although some researchers [19] are testing other
modulation methods like On-Off-Keying (OOK).
Some nodes dont need to wake up much often because of the nature of
measurements they have to make, but as they have to be in touch with the network
they need to wake up to receive incoming messages. An important step towards low
power communications would be the wake-up on radio transmissions.
The architecture of the moteiv telos is presented in Figure 3.

Figure 3 Moteiv Telos Rev A Architecture

The monitoring of the world is the main reason for the use of WSNs. Transducers
play a great role on electrically representing physical phenomena. While piezoelectric
sensors are usually very expensive and big, MEMS transducers provide good
accuracy for low cost and small size boosting the miniaturization of sensor nodes.
Every aspect of the WSNs design has to take into account the power limitations as
this is certainly one of the most important issues in the WSNs concept. The
deployment of sensor nodes mostly occurs in inaccessible places, therefore power
sources have to be designed according to the node expected lifetime.
3.2.2. Embedded Software
In a highly complexity technology such as WSNs, Operating Systems (OS) play an
important role in solving many important design issues regarding hardware
abstraction and resource management. OSs designed for WSNs are quite different
from the ones used in traditional embedded systems mainly because of the power,
processing and storage constraints that require power efficiency, reactivity, mobility,
fault-tolerance, and concurrency.
There are two main types of OSs used in WSNs: Multithread-Driven is the
traditional embedded systems approach adapted to WSN issues, where each task is
given a CPU slot and all tasks concur to access resources; Event-Driven responds to
events such as an incoming data packet or a sensor reading, by calling an event

handler and allocating CPU and resources to solve the event in hands to completion.
Event-Driven OSs are best suited to address the requirements of WSNs because of
their event intrinsic nature.
The mostly used Event-Driven OSs are TinyOS [20], SOS [21], Contiki [22], and
Yatos [23]. Although Contiki runs an Event-Driven kernel, it introduces a new
concept named protothreads that provides a linear, thread-like programming style on
top of the kernel.
Another important concept when choosing an OS to run on WSNs is the support for
safe and efficient re-programming of nodes. This is already addressed in some OSs
like TinyOs, SOS and a virtual Machine for TinyOS named Mat [24] that allow a
complete reprogramming of sensor nodes. Furthermore SOS and Mat allow efficient
reprogramming of parts of the code by uploading the corresponding binary file which
can be interesting for power saving purposes.
3.3. WSNs - Network Architecture
The concept of WSNs implies many different aspects that should be optimized for
better power saving, performance and efficiency. Each application can demand
different network topologies and different deployment densities. This impacts the
communications and routing protocols design. An overview of a WSN architecture is
presented in Figure 4:

Figure 4 WSNs - Network Architecture

3.3.1. Physical, MAC, and Link layers
The design of the physical layer could improve significantly the energy efficiency of
the network. Some factors like overhead, redundancy, etc. should be looked at when
designing the physical layer. Some work on this topic can be found in [25] and [26].

Media Access Control (MAC) is one of the most active research areas in WSNs.
The main research topic is related to keeping the nodes in power saving mode as
much time as possible. Consequently, most of the work is closely related to TDMA.
Although most of the concepts related to addressing techniques are similar to Ad
Hoc Networks, there are also specific problems. For example, geographic addressing
nodes could be very helpful for routing algorithms. A new interesting concept is
content-based addresses that seem very intuitive in WSNs because of their dataoriented nature.
3.3.2. Synchronization and Localization
In some applications the data acquired in all nodes must be interpreted as a whole and
therefore needs to be synchronized. This is not as trivial as it could appear because
there are delays in transmissions and there is no broadcasting clock to synchronize
nodes. This is a much interesting research area for such applications. A good work in
this area is [27].
The localization of sensor nodes using just the relative positions of the nodes is a
very important and researched area in which many approaches have been made such
as exploiting received signal strength indicators, time of arrival, time difference of
arrival, or angle of arrival. Distributed algorithms are playing a great role in
increasing precision.
3.3.3. Topology and Network Layer
When the number of nodes in the range of a particular node is big, a traditional
flooding-based routing could quickly reach enormous amounts of messages. Two very
common approaches to address this issue are transmission power control and
clustering. Some other interesting approaches can be found in [28].
The network layer is the most active research area after MAC and topology
control. Some Ad Hoc solutions could serve as an inspiration to developers in this
field, nevertheless there are specific issues regarding only WSNs (scalability, energy
efficiency and data-centricness). The traditional routing algorithms unicast, multicast,
anycast, and convergecast are still used in WSNs. New approaches designed
specifically for WSNs, like geographic and data-centric routing, are also explained in
this section.
Unicast routing protocols is a very well covered area in Ad Hoc Networks. The
main contribution of this algorithm is the way it deals with energy as a scarce
resource. It takes in consideration battery power in nodes to calculate the best path. A
good example of unicast protocol is LEACH [29].
Multicast is similar to unicast. Energy-efficiency problem is once again covered by
this protocol. One emerging approach is stochastically constrained multicast, where
just a certain percentage of nodes answers when a request is made. The objective is to
rotate sleeping patterns of nodes. This can harmonize application requirements with
lower layer behavior.

Anycast relates to sending messages to an object name that is multiple instantiated

in the network. Typically the closest one is used. This is commonly useful for service
discovery which is still a much unexplored area in WSNs.
Convergecast consists on collecting data from several nodes in a central point
(Sink). This is an important concept in WSNs as it is very close to in-networking
processing and aggregation concepts.
Geographic routing is defined as directing a packet not to a node but to a target
area instead. Any node present in the area is a candidate destination node and can
receive and process a message. This has an obvious importance for WSNs because of
the dynamics of the networks and the environmental-driven monitoring.
Data-centric routing is perhaps the core abstraction of WSNs. It combines the
applications need to access data by using a natural framework for in-network
processing. When a sensor node has new readings publishes these values. Interested
nodes can subscribe to such events. One of the most popular and more cited
publications in this area is directed diffusion [30], even though some of its
performance and functional characteristics are not entirely understood or explained.
Another recent approach is similar to pear-to-pear data storage in the internet, but this
is still not thoroughly investigated.
3.3.4. Transport
The transport protocol, just recently attracted the attention of researchers. This layer
addresses mainly the issues of QoS versus the amount of energy needed to provide
such service. A good work can be found on [31].
3.4. Challenges and Opportunities
As this is a novel technological area there are still many roads ahead and many gaps
that can be filled. At the writing of this survey some important issues still lack an
efficient approach and are therefore open for contributions from researchers with
interest in this field. Some of these topics that have to be addressed are here
mentioned as a starting point to researchers interested in this technology.
3.4.1. WSN as a service network
The increasing number of applications based on WSNs is making this technology a
standard in in-situ monitoring. As more and more monitoring areas are covered, the
idea of making the sensor readings available to the world as a service is getting closer
to becoming true.
In [46] the OCTAVEX framework acts as an abstraction layer and provides readings
of sensors from the WSN in services for the exterior. As this is a commercial product,
fees have to be paid to use it. Some effort should be made to provide the community
of researchers with a framework that integrates all the WSNs in a Wide-WSN concept.

3.4.2. Database like network (query)

The main idea behind making a database like network is to abstract from the sensor
nodes existing in the WSN and just ask for the information required. The network
responds by sending the data and providing information on how that data was
acquired.
One very interesting approach is made by the University of California at Berkley in
the TinyDB [33] project. This approach faces the interface to WSNs as if they were a
database. The main issue is that the SQL queries are not optimized for energy savings.
A possible approach is to design energy-efficient query language to take full
advantage of the WSNs as referred in [34], [35], and [36]. A good breakthrough is to
integrate node location and network topology inputs in the database to allow
appropriate routing of queries and information.
3.4.3. Distributed processing and storage algorithms
WSNs are by definition distributed. The acquisition of data is done everywhere and
deployed anywhere in the network. The resource constraints force the need to reduce
the amount of communications and distribute data storage. Data acquired in a node
could be pre-processed (filtered, compressed, aggregated, etc.) in that node to
minimize transmissions, and processed as it flows through its path to the destination
node. Some inspiration in peer-to-peer networks could be useful because of the
similarities faced regarding distributed data storage problems. The need for
distributed algorithms becomes even clearer as increasingly WSNs are becoming
Wireless Sensor and Actuator Networks (WSANs). In cases where actuators have to
react in conjunction to fulfill an objective there is the need to make the decision in a
distributed way. The application of results from research in Social Networks could
also be explored in what concerns decision making.

3.4.4. Routing protocols

The purpose of WSNs is to harvest and distribute data. This has to be done in an
efficient way especially as the deployment of such networks is usually made in
difficult access places and the resources limit the networks lifetime. Good routing
protocols are already in place although most of them assume static topologies and
therefore some improvements could be useful.
Geo-referenced protocols take advantage of the positioning of nodes to distribute
packets. The improvement of these protocols will enable researches to get more
communication efficient networks wich leads to power efficiency.
A good survey dedicated exclusively on routing protocols can be found in [32].

3.4.5. Network Auto-Setup (self-organization and self-maintenance)

The deployment of WSNs is often in harsh and inaccessible environments which
makes it very difficult to setup the network or to provide maintenance, like for example reprogram the ensemble.
Although operating systems already contemplate some aspects of network
programming there is still space for research in this area. Some important issues on
power-efficiency could still be improved and an enabling new concept of peer
reprogramming could be explored. The idea behind this concept is very simple: Due
to the heterogeneity of the networks and to the resource constraints of the program
storage capabilities of the sensor nodes, although they might use similar hardware,
some are specialized in specific tasks. In some cases it is interesting for a node to
teach another node in range to do its work, when for example its battery is ending.
The self-organization of the nodes is mandatory in these cases and a good protocol
for localization of the nodes could be very helpful in routing or distributed processing
tasks.
3.4.6. P2P in WSNs
According to [1] a P2P Network lacks the notion of clients or servers, but only equal
peer nodes that simultaneously function as both clients and servers.
This concept shares many of ad-hoc WSNs characteristics. Major similarities are
that both networks are connected using overlay structures, like routing trees and hash
tables. Furthermore, both are decentralized [44] and each node acts as client and
server. For these motives, a good scientific contribution could be to enhance and adequate the principles behind P2P and bring them to WSNs.
3.4.7. Localization and Tracking The proposed Challenge
As already referred in some of the challenges above, the localization of sensor nodes
can be a very enabling technology and can provide help to improve performance of
many of the algorithms.
For example, in geographic routing protocols, the location information (in the form
of coordinates) is used to select the next forwarding host among the senders
neighbours.
In rescue applications, rescue personnel can perform their tasks only if location of
the hazardous event (reported by nodes) is known.
Some examples of the research in this area are presented in the next paragraphs:
In [37] some methods for estimating unknown node positions using exclusively
connectivity induced constraints are presented. These methods are only suitable for
location determination with beacons.
In [38] an ingenious algorithm based on GPS-free positioning in shown. This algorithm explores only each nodes knowledge of the neighbours and produces a coordi-

nate system for each node and for the network. One major drawback of this approach
is that the nodes do not know the physical direction of the coordinate system.
In [39] the authors address the deployment by aircrafts of node groups and determine the positioning of a node through the neighbours considering that the node is located close to the drop place of the node groups more represented. The bigger drawback is that the deployment does not always act like a model.
[40] The authors use a mobile beacon to scan through the network, broadcasting its
position while it passes. Although this is a good idea, it is not always possible to
move beacons around a deployment area.
[41, 42] use the in-range method that simply states that the transmission at a given
power can be decoded only to a maximum distance, it trades power for simplicity.
[43] Addresses the problem of Simultaneous localization, tracking and calibration
using probabilistic Bayesian filtering! This is a very good algorithm for ultrasound localization, but still lacks accuracy when using radio connection.
Although localization and tracking is a hot topic with a large community of researchers, there are still open issues that have to be solved to achieve good accuracy
in all possible scenarios.

Scientific research objectives

The aim of this dissertation will be to:

Develop accurate, fast, efficient and scalable localization and tracking algorithms;
Prove applicability, efficiency and scalability of the algorithms.
These algorithms should be optimized to be used wireless sensor networks but
should scale up to other technologies;
Master knowledge and technologies in the field of networked systems (networked
embedded systems), more specifically in the area of wireless sensor networks.
Develop skills in the development of applications based on wireless sensor networks.

The results of this work will be integrated into a framework that allows expedite development of applications based on wireless sensor networks and will be demonstrated in an application case study in the security area.

Research methodology and Work Plan

To structure the work to be done, a project management approach will be followed.

The work will be divided in 5 activities that will be subdivided in Tasks.

A1
A2
A3
A4
A5

Curricular Year
Related Work
Requirements and Specifications
Development and testing
Elaboration of the Thesis

A1

A3

A4

Curricular
Year

Requirements
and
Specifications

Development
and
Testing

A5 - Elaboration of the thesis

A2 Related Work

A graphical presentation of the activities showing their interdependencies in shown

in Figure 5:

Figure 5 - Work Plan Structure and interdependencies (Pert diagram)

The work plan will target precise and measurable objectives that are reflected in
six milestones:
o Milestone 1 Thesis Proposal presented
o Milestone 2 WSN State of the Art Available
o Milestone 3 Localization and Tracking State of the Art Available
o Milestone 4 Requirements and Specifications available
o Milestone 5 Algorithms and Components Developed
o Milestone 6 Thesis written and presented
This document corresponds to Milestone 1 and in the moment of its elaboration,
milestone 2 is also completed.

5.1. A1 Curricular Year

The curricular year is composed of 7 tasks / curricular units that have already been
taken and completed:
T1.1 Methodologies for Scientific Research
T1.2 Knowledge Extraction
T1.3 Interaction and Visual Simulation Environments
T1.4 Multi-agent Systems
T1.5 Research Planning
T1.6 Assisted Reconstruction of 3D Objects
T1.7 High Performance Resources in Internet Environment
This is the first year of the PhD and ends with the presentation of the thesis proposal.

5.2. A2 Related Work

T2.1 - State of the art
To enlarge the knowledge and improve the concept of this thesis, an ongoing study on
the related work is in progress aimed mainly at Localization and Tracking areas although other complimentary areas are also being studied such as distributed processing and storage algorithms and routing protocols.
During this research, the exchange of ideas with the big research groups in WSNs
will be promoted and their work will be kept under attention:
Some of those groups are:
Berkeley University of California
KTH - The Royal Institute of Technology
ETH Zrich
During this task a comparison matrix/methodology will be defined. A common
approach would be to use statistics for this purpose. In section 5.3 some possible
methods are enumerated.
T2.2 - Specification of the case study
Security against terrorist attacks and (organized) crime is a growing concern to citizens in communities throughout Europe and beyond. Recent events, arising from social and geo-political changes in the global context, have highlighted the need to develop new technologies to counter these increasing threats. Substantial resources are
being invested in the development of preventative measures, based on intelligent surveillance, to identify and intercept terrorists and, although there are general concerns
over increased intrusion into the privacy of the public, these developments are important factors in reducing the risks of future attacks.

The scientific results of the research will always keep in mind its applications on a
case study in the security area that will be specified in this Section.
5.3. A3 Requirements and Specifications
T3.1 - Requirements and concepts for the algorithms
In this task the requirements for the algorithms will be studied.
Table 2 presents, in a structured fashion, much of the concerns and concepts to be
used when developing the localization and tracking algorithm:
Problem

Technology
Infrastructure (Fixed Beacons)
Mobile Beacon

Localization strategy

Global Positioning System

Ad-Hoc
Mixed
Time of arrival (TOA)
Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI)

Relative Location
Angle of Arrival (AOA)
Time Difference of Arrival (TDOA)
Absolute Location

Use probabilistic approach from deployment readings of GPS.

2D

Dimension

2,5D
3D
Distributed

Processing
Centralized
positions of the nodes in the local coordinate system are computed without using the observed node
Non Line of Sight
error (NLOS)

the position of the observed node is estimated using the positions of at least
three of its neighbours
the residual weighting algorithm is applied to mitigate the error

Measuring error

Better antennas and radios

Statistics

Probability Distribution Function (PDF)

Maximum Likelihood Equation (MLE)
Gaussian Distribution

Mean Square Root

Kalman Filter
Particle Filter
Kolmogorov-Smirnof tests for accuracy

Table 2 Relevant factors for the requirements specification

T3.2 - Development and testing of the algorithms (simulation)
For the development of the algorithms the following sequence will be followed:

Development of algorithms for relative inter-node localization in a 2D environment with no interferences;

Development of algorithms for relative inter-node localization in a 2D environment with reflections and absorptions;
Development of algorithms for relative inter-node localization in a 3D environment;
Development of algorithms for Absolute positioning in 2D and 3D environments
Tracking algorithms for mobile nodes in 2D and 3D;

Large scale simulations will be made using tossim [46];

5.4. A4 Development and Testing
T4.1 - Development of the framework components
When the algorithms are ready to be tested, the framework components will be developed in order to prepare the demonstration. Figure 6 explains the architecture of the
framework. The modules to be developed are signalled by an arrow.

Figure 6 Wireless Sensor Framework Architecture

T4.2 Demonstration
Field tests will be made using Berkleys motes (tmotes). The case study will be deployed and the framework components will be tested. A complete analysis of the
demonstration will be present on the thesis.
T4.3 - Comparative analysis
This task will be used to test the research hypothesis. Following the plan plotted during the state of the art for the correct assessment of the behaviour of the algorithm, a
thorough analysis of the results will be made and if needed the appropriate measures
will be taken to improve the results.

5.5. A5 Elaboration of the thesis

T5.1 - Elaboration of the thesis
The elaboration of the thesis will be made during all phases of this research but after
the results are obtained and tested against the other algorithms, finally it will be the
time to conclude the thesis and hopefully the results will be a good contribution to the
scientific community that acts not only in WSNs but also other technologies that need
localization and tracking services.
5.6. Work Plan
The timing of the different activities and their tasks are presented in Figure 7:

Figure 7 Gantt chart

Potential contributions (Implications of Research)

The proposed thesis will focus on contributing to the scientific community with a localization and tracking algorithm more accurate and effective that the ones in use.
The development of relative and absolute localization and tracking algorithms for
wireless sensor networks will try to accomplish the following over the other algorithms:
Better accuracy;
Better performance;
Better efficiency;
Scalability;
Provide Location Aided Routing protocols with accurate position;
Develop distributed and centralized processing and storage algorithms as a tool
for localization and tracking;
Develop services for tracking of mobile nodes.

Conclusions

With the advances in processing power, sensor accuracy, miniaturization and

production costs, WSNs will be used in a wider range of applications in the near
future. Already deployed WSNs serve as a proof of concept, providing the means to
monitor environmental data formerly impossible to collect due to the inaccessibility
or characteristics of the environments where such physical phenomena take place.
Research on this field is very promising and has been attracting the scientific
community for the last years. Some of the more active research areas are WSN as a
service network, Database like network (query), Distributed processing and storage
algorithms, Routing protocols, Network Auto-Setup (self-organization and selfmaintenance), P2P in WSNs and Localization and Tracking. Recent developments
prove that there are many applications feasible with the available technology, assuring
that in a near future WSNs will become commodities in what concerns sense and
instrument the physical world. Furthermore WSNs are a factor of progress, enhancing
productivity in sectors such as agriculture, transport and construction.
The localization and tracking algorithms proposed will be tested against the other
technologies available and in case of less satisfatory results, the reasons will be
assessed and the algoriths will be optimised to achieve better performance.
Two of the Milestones are already achieved and the work done in milestone 2 has
already been published in:
Sensing the World - Challenges on WSNs,IEEE-TTTC International Conference on
Automation, Quality and Testing, Robotics - AQTR 2008, 22-25 May, Romania.
During the dissertation the results achieved will by published both in scientific
conferences and Journals (At least one per year).
Several important international conferences in this area were identified:

ACM SenSys - International Conference on Embedded Networked Sensor

Systems
EWSN - European Conference on Wireless Sensor Networks
REALWSN Workshop on Real-World Wireless Sensor Networks
A great effort will be made to publish the results of the research in these conferences.
Research made will be integrated in FEUPs WSN Group and continuously
disseminated in both the groups page: (http://whale.fe.up.pt/wsn) and in the authors
website: http://valter.dnsalias.com

Acknowledgment
The author gratefully wants to thank Gil Gonalves for all the wisdom and support
given throughout the definition of the thesis.
The author also wants to acknowledge the help of the Professors from the Doctoral
Program in Informatics Engineering of FEUP, specially the ones in charge of
Methodologies for Scientific Research and Research Planning Eugnio Oliveira and
Augusto Sousa.

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