With a new way of thinking about organizing sensor networks, we demonstrate that we can more easily deploy and program these networks to solve a variety of different problems. We describe sensor networks that can analyze and actuate distributed phenomena without a central coordinator. Previous implementations of sensor networks have approached the problem from the perspective of centralized reporting of distributed events. By contrast, we create a system that allows users to infer the global state from within the sensor network itself, rather than by accessing an outside, central middleware layer. This is accomplished via dynamic creation of clusters of nodes based on application or intent, rather than proximity. The data collected and returned by these clusters is returned directly to the inquirer at his current location. By creating this Distributed-in/Distributed-out (DiDo) system that bypasses a middleware layer, our networks have the principal advantage of being easily configurable and deployable. We show that a system with this structure can solve path problems in a random graph. These graph problems are directly applicable to real-life applications such as discovering escape routes for people in a building with changing pathways. We show that the system is scalable, as reconfiguration requires only local communication.
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