CSC714 ProjectPower-Aware RF Communication with MICA MotesMicah Colon (macolon)
Initial Project Proposal Sensor networks have rapidly become an efficient and convenient means of collecting data from a variety of sources for a variety of purposes. Due to the isolated nature of most sensors and their reliability on a limited power source, maximizing the lifetime of the power source is a major design element in sensor networks. Research and experience have shown that RF communication is one of the greatest draws of power in these systems and much work has gone into minimizing such communication, resulting in a number of different schemes and methods to conserve power. Initial work on the project involved familiarization with TinyOS, nesC (the language of TinyOS), and the MICA motes themselves. Some efforts were devoted to monitoring and displaying the remaining battery power, with interest in finding ways of conserving power while continuing to execute. However, it soon became apparent that there were limitations in the hardware of the MICA motes. Power saving became primarily a fully on (no power savings) state or a snooze (max power savings) state. Our attention quickly moved to efficient communication schemes that could make use of these limitations. TDMA-based power schemes for sensor networks are not new, but implementations of them tend to be an integral part of applications, adding to the applications complexity and development time. Our objective was to remove the need to constantly re-implement such schemes by providing a platform which handles all the details of communication and a significant portion of the power savings. For further details regarding our project, please read the final report. Project source code can be found here. Links:
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