Agent-Based Mode-change Framework for Flexible Wireless Sensor Networks (POSTPRINT)

摘要

The next generation of wireless sensor networks (WSN) is required to cope with increasingly more complex applications and scenarios, involving a range of sensors supporting diverse functions such as the monitoring, detection and tracking of moving objects. These applications often exhibit changing, dynamic requirements, which may correspondingly require from the network some form of adaptive behavior. In this paper, we describe and propose a mode-change framework for wireless sensor networks. A mode-change framework allows a WSN to implement modes of operation and to change from one mode to another according to changes in the environment, thus adding more adaptability to the applications. The framework uses agents to implement one or more applications as well as to manage the transitions from one mode to another. The use of mobile agents and modes of operation confer the WSN an extra degree of flexibility, due to the ability to easily replace entire sets of agents while selectively maintaining others in operation upon demand.