ETH Zurich : Computer Science : Pervasive Computing : Distributed Systems : Research : Sensor Networks

Sensor Networks

A Research Topic of the Distributed Systems Group

Wireless networks of autonomous computing devices, each equipped with sensors, a wireless radio, and a processor, are envisioned to be deployed unobtrusively in the physical environment in order to monitor a wide range of environmental phenomena with unprecedented quality and scale. The close integration of sensor networks with the physical world imposes a number of challenging research problems.

We investigate these research questions in the framework of NCCR MICS, the National Center of Competence in Research on Mobile Information and Communication Systems. Together with other research groups at ETH Zurich we developed the BTnode system in an early phase of MICS, a hardware and software platform for sensor networks that forms an important experimental environment to validate and evaluate our research.

Later, we study novel programming paradigms to mitigate the complexity of sensor networks resulting from constrained resources and large, dynamic network topologies. In particular, we devise declarative specification techniques to program a sensor network as a whole at a high level of abstraction. Further, we investigate concepts and tools to facilitate the deployment of large-scale sensor networks for realistic applications. Motivated by the fact that in practice many sensor network deployments fail even though they have been extensively tested in the lab, we develop mechanisms for in-situ monitoring, debugging, and management of sensor networks on the deployment site. To validate our approaches, we also work on concrete applications such as a sensor network for monitoring noise pollution in urban environments.

Most recently, we are working on enabling thread-based programming for the resource-constrained devices employed in sensor networks. In contrast to the standard approach, we employ a compiler that translates thread-based programs into event-based programs. The results of our extensive evaluation show that this approach gives you the comfort of threads with very minimal resource overhead.

See also the following related items:

• Internet of Things (topic)
• NCCR-MICS (project)
• SNIF (project)
• BTnodes (demo)

Participating Researchers

Matthias Kovatsch, Silvia Santini, Benedikt Ostermaier (until 2015), Alexander Bernauer (until 2012), Kay Römer (until 2012)

Selected Publications

See the Publications of the Distributed Systems Group page for a full listing of our publications.

• Matthias Kovatsch, Simon Duquennoy, Adam Dunkels
  A Low-Power CoAP for Contiki.
  Proceedings of the 8th IEEE International Conference on Mobile Ad-hoc and Sensor Systems (MASS 2011). Valencia, Spain, October 2011
  Abstract, BibTeX, Paper (.pdf)
  
  
• Ugo Colesanti, Silvia Santini, Andrea Vitaletti
  DISSense: An Adaptive Ultralow-power Communication Protocol for Wireless Sensor Networks.
  Proceedings of the 7th IEEE International Conference on Distributed Computing in Sensor Systems (DCOSS 2011). Barcelona, Spain, June 2011
  Abstract, BibTeX, Paper (.pdf)
  
  
• Silvia Santini
  Using Adaptive Sensor Ranking to Reduce the Overhead of the Coverage Configuration Protocol.
  Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Intelligent Sensors, Sensor Networks and Information Processing (ISSNIP 2010). Brisbane, Australia, December 2010
  Abstract, BibTeX, Paper (.pdf)
  
  
• Silvia Santini, Benedikt Ostermaier, Robert Adelmann
  On the Use of Sensor Nodes and Mobile Phones for the Assessment of Noise Pollution Levels in Urban Environments.
  Proceedings of the Sixth International Conference on Networked Sensing Systems (INSS 2009), Pittsburgh, PA, USA. June 2009
  Abstract, BibTeX, Paper (.pdf)
  
  
• Matthias Ringwald, Kay Römer
  BurstMAC – A MAC Protocol with Low Idle Overhead and High Throughput (Work in Progress).
  Proceedings of Work-in-Progress Papers of the 4th IEEE/ACM International Conference on Distributed Computing in Sensor Systems (DCOSS'08). pp. 24-26, Santorini Island, Greece, June 11-14, 2008
  BibTeX, Paper (.pdf)
  
  
• Christian Frank, Philipp Bolliger, Friedemann Mattern, Wolfgang Kellerer
  The Sensor Internet at Work: Locating Everyday Items Using Mobile Phones.
  Pervasive and Mobile Computing, Vol. 4, No. 3, pp. 421-447, June 2008
  Abstract, BibTeX, Paper (.pdf)
  
  
• Kay Römer, Matthias Ringwald
  Increasing the Visibility of Sensor Networks with Passive Distributed Assertions.
  Proceedings of the 3rd ACM Workshop on Real-World Wireless Sensor Networks (REALWSN'08). Glasgow, United Kingdom, April 1, 2008
  Abstract, BibTeX, Paper (.pdf)
  
  
• Kay Römer, Matthias Ringwald
  The Deployment of Sensor Networks.
  In: Florence Luy (Ed.): National Center of Competence in Research for Mobile Information and Communication Systems (NCCR-MICS) Newsletter, pp. 2-4, February 2008
  BibTeX, Paper (.pdf)
  
  
• Matthias Ringwald, Kay Römer
  Practical Time Synchronization for Bluetooth Scatternets.
  Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Broadband Communications, Networks, and Systems (BROADNETS 2007). Raleigh, North Carolina, USA, September 2007
  Abstract, BibTeX, Paper (.pdf)
  Invited paper
  
  
• Christian Frank
  Role-based Configuration of Wireless Sensor Networks.
  PhD thesis No. 17354, ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland, July 2007
  BibTeX, Paper (.pdf)
  
  
• Matthias Ringwald, Kay Römer
  Deployment of Sensor Networks: Problems and Passive Inspection.
  Proceedings of the 5th Workshop on Intelligent Solutions in Embedded Systems (WISES '07). pp. 180-193, Madrid, Spain, June 2007
  Abstract, BibTeX, Paper (.pdf)
  
  
• Matthias Ringwald, Kay Römer, Andrea Vitaletti
  Passive Inspection of Sensor Networks.
  Proceedings of the 3rd IEEE International Conference on Distributed Computing in Sensor Systems (DCOSS 2007). pp. 205-222, Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA, June 2007
  Abstract, BibTeX, Paper (.pdf)
  
  
• Oliver Kasten
  A State-Based Programming Model for Wireless Sensor Networks.
  PhD thesis No. 17397, ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland, June 2007
  Abstract, BibTeX, Paper (.pdf)
  
  
• Matthias Ringwald, Kay Römer, Andrea Vitaletti
  SNIF: Sensor Network Inspection Framework.
  Technical Report No. 535, Department of Computer Science, ETH Zurich, October 2006
  Abstract, BibTeX, Paper (.pdf)
  
  
• Christian Frank, Kay Römer
  Algorithms for Generic Role Assignment in Wireless Sensor Networks.
  Proceedings of the 3rd ACM Conference on Embedded Networked Sensor Systems (SenSys 2005). San Diego, CA, USA, November 2005
  Abstract, BibTeX, Paper (.pdf), Talk (.ppt)
  
  
• Harald Vogt, Matthias Ringwald, Mario Strasser
  Intrusion Detection and Failure Recovery in Sensor Nodes.
  Tagungsband INFORMATIK 2005, Workshop Proceedings. Lecture Notes in Informatics, Vol. P-68, Gesellschaft für Informatik, pp. 161-163, Bonn, Germany, September 2005
  Abstract, BibTeX, Paper (.pdf)
  
  
• Kay Römer
  Time Synchronization and Localization in Sensor Networks.
  PhD thesis No. 16106, ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland, June 2005
  BibTeX, Paper (.pdf)
  
  
• Matthias Ringwald, Kay Römer
  BitMAC: A Deterministic, Collision-Free, and Robust MAC Protocol for Sensor Networks.
  Proceedings of 2nd European Workshop on Wireless Sensor Networks (EWSN 2005). pp. 57-69, Istanbul, Turkey, January 2005
  Abstract, BibTeX, Paper (.pdf)
  
  
• Harald Vogt
  Exploring Message Authentication in Sensor Networks.
  Proceedings of ESAS 2004 (1st European Workshop on Security in Ad Hoc and Sensor Networks). LNCS, Springer-Verlag, Heidelberg, Germany, August 2004
  Abstract, BibTeX, Paper (.pdf)
  
  
• Harald Vogt
  Integrity Preservation for Communication in Sensor Networks.
  Technical Report No. 434, ETH Zürich, Institute for Pervasive Computing, February 2004
  BibTeX, Paper (.pdf)
  
  
• Kay Römer
  Tracking Real-World Phenomena with Smart Dust.
  1st European Workshop on Wireless Sensor Networks (EWSN). Springer-Verlag, ISBN 3-540-20825-9, pp. 28-43, Berlin, Germany, January 2004
  Abstract, BibTeX, Paper (.pdf)
  
  
• Jan Beutel, Oliver Kasten, Friedemann Mattern, Kay Römer, Frank Siegemund, Lothar Thiele
  Prototyping Wireless Sensor Network Applications with BTnodes.
  1st European Workshop on Wireless Sensor Networks (EWSN). LNCS No. 2920, Springer-Verlag, ISBN 3-540-20825-9, pp. 323-338, Berlin, Germany, January 2004
  Abstract, BibTeX, Paper (.pdf)
  
  
• Friedemann Mattern, Kay Römer
  Drahtlose Sensornetze.
  Informatik-Spektrum, Vol. 26, No. 3, pp. 191-194, June 2003
  Abstract, BibTeX, Paper (.pdf)
  
  
• Kay Römer
  The Lighthouse Location System for Smart Dust.
  Proceedings of MobiSys 2003 (ACM/USENIX Conference on Mobile Systems, Applications, and Services). pp. 15-30, San Francisco, CA, USA, May 2003
  Abstract, BibTeX, Paper (.pdf)
  
  
• Jeremy Elson, Kay Römer
  Wireless Sensor Networks: A New Regime for Time Synchronization.
  ACM SIGCOMM Computer Communication Review, Vol. 33, No. 1, pp. 149-154, January 2003
  Abstract, BibTeX, Paper (.pdf)
  Presented at the Workshop on Hot Topics in Networks (HotNets-I), October 2002
  
  
• Kay Römer, Oliver Kasten, Friedemann Mattern
  Middleware Challenges for Wireless Sensor Networks.
  ACM Mobile Computing and Communication Review, Vol. 6, No. 4, pp. 59-61, October 2002
  Abstract, BibTeX, Paper (.pdf)
  
  
• Kay Römer
  Time Synchronization in Ad Hoc Networks.
  Proceedings of MobiHoc 2001. ACM, October 2001
  Abstract, BibTeX, Paper (.pdf)
  
  

Related Student Projects

The following table lists corresponding student projects in our group. Note that some descriptions will be in German.