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Reversing Time in a Didactic Simulator for Wireless Sensor Networks Host Publication: Institute for Systems Engineering and Automation Authors: M. Paule Uwase, L. Nguyen, J. Tiberghien, K. Steenhaut and J. Dricot Publication Date: Feb. 2012
Abstract: Wireless sensor networks consist of autonomous intelligent sensors, usually powered by battery, that can measure certain characteristics of their environment, such as temperature, pressure, moisture, acceleration, etc. These sensor nodes communicate by radio with their neighbours to forward data to a central collection point from where it is sent to some analysis centre via the Internet. The use of batteries and radio communications minimizes the cost. Wireless sensor networks have a broad range of applications: climate monitoring, seismic monitoring, early detection of bush fires, power usage optimization in buildings, etc. A major concern is the lifetime of batteries. As most of the energy is used for radio transmission, many research efforts have focused on the development of communication protocols that minimize power consumption. Some of these networks not only observe their environment, but act upon it [2]. A trivial example being a network of movement and light sensors and smart light bulbs, that bring light when and where needed. The authors are regularly faced with Master students interested in Wireless Sensor and Actuator Networks (WSANs) as a research topic for their thesis, but not knowing enough about it to make a rational choice. Teaching quickly these basics to individual potential students appeared to be a time consuming, rather inefficient, task. Moreover, it is widely known that students, who have the opportunity to experiment freely with systems they need to understand, learn faster and more in depth than those who do not have such opportunities.
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