Thesis title:
A STUDY ON CERTAIN THEORETICAL AND PRACTICAL PROBLEMS IN WIRELESS NETWORKS
By: MEHMET AKIF ANTEPL
ABSTRACT :
The aim of the thesis is to investigate the design of ecient wireless networks through practical as well as theoretical considerations. We constructed a wireless sensor network (WSN) testbed with battery operated nodes capable of RF communication. The system is a centralized tree-based WSN to study challenges of target modeling, detection, and localization. The testbed employed magnetic sensors, on which relatively few results have been reported in the literature. A ferrous test target is modeled as magnetic dipole by validating experimentally. The problem of sensor sensitivity variation is addressed by including sensitivity estimates in model validation. After reliably detecting the target, maximum-likelihood and least-squares techniques are applied for localization. Practical considerations of constructing a WSN utilizing magnetic sensors addressed. Maximum-lifetime operation of these networks requires joint consideration of sensing and communication. Energy harvesting is promising to overcome this major challenge for energyconstrained systems. In the second part of the thesis, we considered the minimization of transmission completion time for a given number of bits per user in an energy harvesting multiuser communication system, where the energy harvesting instants are known beforehand. The two-user case with achievable rate region having structural properties satisfied by the AWGN Broadcast Channel is studied. It is shown that the optimal scheduler ends transmission to both users at the same time while deferring a nonnegative amount of energy from each energy harvest for later use. The problem is formulated as an optimization problem and solved by exploiting its special structure.
Keywords:
wireless sensor network, magnetic sensing, localization, packet scheduling, energy harvesting