Cayley Pseudo-Random (CPR) MAC Protocol for Channel Assignment in Large, Dense Wireless Sensor Networks

Speaker:	Prof. K. Wendy Tang
		State University of New York at Stony Brook

Title:		"Cayley Pseudo-Random (CPR) MAC Protocol for Channel
		 Assignment in Large, Dense Wireless Sensor Networks"

Date:		Monday, 27 June 2005

Time:		11:00 am - 12 noon

Venue:		Room 3464 (Conference Room, via lift nos. 25/26), HKUST

ABSTRACT:

Recent development of small and affordable microsensors that can
communicate with each other via radio transceivers have resulted in the
rapid growth of wireless sensor networks with applications in all aspects
of life.  Inspired by the vision that future sensor networks will be
large, dense and consist of sensor nodes with more local computation power
and will engage more peer-to-peer communications, we developed a novel MAC
protocol for these large and dense wireless sensor networks.  This new
protocol uses a novel channel assignment scheme based on the pseudo-random
connection of a dense Cayley graph, hence the name, CPR (Cayley
Pseudo-Random) MAC protocol.

Today's existing MAC protocols mostly consider a single channel or a small
number of multiple channels.  In this talk, we explain how the CPR MAC
protocol explores the potential benefits of utilizing the entire
communication bandwidth in a dense sensor network.  By utilizing all or
most of the available frequency channels, the CPR MAC protocol can support
many, simultaneous peer to peer communications.  Other features of the
protocol include minimal collisions due to fixed channel assignments and a
decentralized routing algorithm that avoids global time synchronization.
These features all help to minimize communication overheads associated
with collisions and time synchronization and therefore making the protocol
energy efficient.


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Biography:

Professor Wendy Tang is an Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer
Engineering at the State University of New York (SUNY) at Stony Brook.
She was born and raised in Hong Kong but pursued her higher education in
the United States.  She received her B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in
Electrical Engineering from the University of Rochester, New York in 1986,
1988, and 1991.  Since 1991, she has been a faculty member at SUNY-Stony
Brook.  Her most recent research interests are in wireless sensor
networks, network performance modeling and novel computer architectures.
Two of her conference papers received the Best Paper Awards in national
and international conferences.  She is also an accomplished educator who
has dedicated efforts in promoting entrepreneurship in engineering
education and increasing women students in engineering. She is the
Associate Director of the Sensor Consortium, a National Science Foundation
funded project to promote entrepreneurial skills in engineering education.
She has been a mentor for numerous young women through funded and
non-funded projects.  Her dedication in promoting women in engineering was
recognized by an IEEE Region 1 Award in 1998 and an IEEE Third Millennium
Medal Award in 2000.