Paper Authors

Abstract

NOTE: The first page of text has been automatically extracted and included below in lieu of an abstract

Work in Progress: Teaching Wireless Sensor Network Communication through Laboratory Experiments

Abstract

Wireless communications is becoming a transparent technology with which incoming college students most certainly have vast firsthand experience as users. Wireless Sensors Network Communications often proves to be a quite challenging subject to teach because many students appear to find the subject too technical. In this paper, we present some undergoing capstone design projects and laboratory experiments to provide the students of wireless communication and networking with a hands-on experience. The motivation of this approach is twofold. First, the projects pertain to the area of wireless sensor networks where rapid technological changes in wireless sensing devices have changed the types of work electrical and computer-engineering students are likely to do in their careers. Second, student groups come up with their own project applications and problem statements for which to design a system.

1. Introduction

The academic field is undergoing significant changes correspondent to the revolutionary advances in technology. Nowadays, more students have full time jobs or family obligations, which negatively affect on the frequency of student visits to the classes or labs. One of the enormous opportunities modern technologies provide lies in the effective use of computers and the Internet as potent educational tools. In the last few years, many universities have successfully used Internet based distance learning technologies.

This article discusses the possibility of teaching wireless sensor network communication through laboratory experiments. We focus on the following experiments: optimum placement of sensors in wireless sensor networks [3], [19], [21], sensor placement for effective diagnosis of multiple faults [5],[7],[8],[10], and continuous health monitoring using wearable biosensors [4]. For each project we presents the related work, how the proposed project is different, the requested equipment within the undergoing experiment and the anticipated results. We also focus the major educational activities [1], and provide the list of hands-on projects to be developed. We anticipate that the full project will be completed in the next 18 months.

2. Laboratory experiments

2.1 Optimum Placement of Sensors in Wireless Sensor Networks

Energy efficient system design in wireless sensor networks has become the top priority in order to provide the maximum possible lifetime of a given network [3]. Many communication, power management, and data dissemination protocols have been specifically designed for Wireless Sensor Networks where energy awareness is an essential design issue. Wireless communications between sensors requires more energy than the sensing and computational part of each node. As

• Citation

• Format
  • APA
  • APA - LaTeX bibitem
  • MLA
  • MLA - LaTeX bibitem
  • Bibtex
  • EndNote - RIS

Cotae, P., & Ososanya, E., & Kemathe, L., & Regmi, S., & Kouam, K. P. (2010, June), Work In Progress: Teaching Wireless Sensor Networks Through Laboratory Experiments Paper presented at 2010 Annual Conference & Exposition, Louisville, Kentucky. 10.18260/1-2--17016