Advisory Committee Chair
Thomas Jannett
Advisory Committee Members
Dale Callahan
B Earl Wells
Gary Grimes
Roy Koomulllil
Document Type
Dissertation
Date of Award
2007
Degree Name by School
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) School of Engineering
Abstract
Management of power and other resources that effect field life is an important consideration in sensor networks. Sensing, data fusion, target tracking, and network resources are some of the factors that have to be effectively managed in order to improve the field life of an underwater distributed sensor network application. A hierarchical sensor network is considered in which the sensors report the range and bearing of the target to the cluster nodes. The cluster nodes then fuse data from the sensor nodes to generate a local estimate of the target position. The master node fuses data from the different cluster nodes to generate a global estimate of the target position. Intelligent agents present on the cluster and master nodes help to manage network resources. This dissertation presents and compares alternative agent paradigms applicable for resource management in the sensor network. The comparisons provide an increased understanding of how the performance of the sensor network changes with the number, functionality, and presence of agents at different levels in the network hierarchy. A modular simulation framework based on object-oriented design was used in performance evaluation and to generate data for a detailed analysis of component interactions. The number of computations, number of communications, tracking performance, and intelligence quotient for different agent paradigms were compared. The simulation framework developed in this dissertation demonstrated the scalability and flexibility of an agent-based system where task-specific agents can be iii added or removed to easily simulate different scenarios. An agent-based scenario in which multiple master nodes were present in the field and another scenario in which master and cluster agents were stacked on the same physical hardware achieved high field-life performance with acceptable tracking errors. Simulation results verify the effectiveness of using agents for resource management in sensor networks. The results comparing the different agent paradigms presented in this dissertation will assist designers of agent-based systems in using agents to their best advantage in scenarios similar to those explored here.
Recommended Citation
Anthony, Anish, "A Comparison Of Agent Paradigms For Resource Management In Distributed Sensor Networks" (2007). All ETDs from UAB. 3657.
https://digitalcommons.library.uab.edu/etd-collection/3657
