Implementation of utility-based resource optimization protocols on ITA Sensor Fabric

Utility-based cross-layer optimization is a valuable tool for resource management in mission-oriented wireless sensor networks (WSN). The benefits of this technique include the ability to take application- or mission-level utilities into account and to dynamically adapt to the highly variable environment of tactical WSNs. Recently, we developed a family of distributed protocols which adapts the bandwidth and energy usage in mission-oriented WSN in order to optimally allocate resources among multiple missions, that may have specific demands depending on their priority, and also variable schedules, entering and leaving the network at different times.^9-12 In this paper, we illustrate the practical applicability of this family of protocols in tactical networks by implementing one of the protocols, which ensures optimal rate adaptation for congestion control in mission-oriented networks,⁹ on a real-time 802.11b network using the ITA Sensor Fabric.¹³ The ITA Sensor Fabric is a middleware infrastructure, developed as part of the International Technology Alliance (ITA) in Network and Information Science, ¹⁴ to address the challenges in the areas of sensor identification, classification, interoperability and sensor data sharing, dissemination and consumability, commonly present in tactical WSNs.¹⁵ Through this implementation, we (i) study the practical challenges arising from the implementation and (ii) provide a proof of concept regarding the applicability of this family of protocols for efficient resource management in tactical WSNs amidst the heterogeneous and dynamic sets of sensors, missions and middle-ware.