SIDnet-SWANS

A Simulator and Integrated Development Platform for Sensor Networks Applications

Acknowledgments

Project Overview

SIDnet is an exploratory-design environment for various aspects of applications of wireless sensor networks. It was made to provide a simulation and proof-of-concept platform in which the end-users, the application/protocol developers and various phenomena monitored by that network interact in a seamless manner. SIDnet is a Java-based visual tool designed to promote run-time interactions with the network. End-users can observe the behavior of newly designed algorithms in the presence of various phenomena fluctuations like, for example, a sudden loss of service both at an individual node, as well as a collection of nodes in a certain area of the network; unexpected increase/decrease in the measurement values; changes in the (network) load/traffic; etc. User can pose queries using graphical tools that are synchronized with with the textual ones providing a TinySQL-like primitives. In addition, at run-time (through built-in terminals) the simulation can be fast-forwarded or paused, as needed. SIDnet incorporates a complete graphical user interface package built on top of the JiST-SWANS simulator which, in turn, guarantees the validity of the performance and other observations of a particular simulation. It is an extensible tool with a well defined and easy to learn API, that the developers can use to integrate their novel implementations and, together with the end-users of the application, perform various hypothetical reasoning in any pre-deployment stage.







SIDnet running a multi-path routing simulation over a map of fluctuating phenomena

SIDnet-SWANS (Simulator and Integrated Development Platform for Sensor Networks Applications) allows the users to interact with (the models of) different dynamic phenomena, as well as various components of the network, at different levels of granularity (e.g., node, region, routing structure). At a glance, SIDnet represents a graphical user interface wrapper for the JiST-SWANS, designed for streamlining the user interaction with the network, post, pre, or during the simulation in an intuitive and simplistic manner). It has the following additional features:

  • flexible graphical user interaction with the wireless sensor network
  • visual feedback of the sensor network’s state in real-time.
  • explicit control over the simulation’s speed.
  • integrated energy consumption modelling and management.
  • modular design, allowing for user addition of various models of phenomena to be simulated (temperature dynamics, humidity, moving objects, etc)

Project participants/Acknowledgments:

  • Oliviu C. Ghica, Ph.D. (Project Lead and Developer '03-'10)
    Dr. Ghica has been the project lead, architect and developer of SIDnet-SWANS, during 2003-2010. Dr. Ghica was motivated by the lack of a GUI enabled large-scale simulator that can perform fast realistic-simulations for large scale deployments and large volume of testing scenarios in his early stages of his Ph.D. studies in the field of Large Scale Wireless Sensor Networks. Oliviu C. Ghica has graduated in 2010 from Northwestern University, under the supervision and direction of Prof. Peter Scheuermann and Dr. Goce Trajcevski

  • Prof. Peter Scheuermann (team-coordinator, advisor)
    Thank you Prof. Scheuermann for your support, both academic and financial, for this project to grow. I've always appreciated your critical attitude which carved the way for SIDnet

  • Research Assist. Prof. Goce Trajcevski (co-advisor),
    I am deeply thankful for the great amount of help and guidance to Prof. Trajcevski, without who this project would not be what it is. He was and remains the main visionary spirit for SIDnet.

  • Lan Bai, University of Michigan, USA
    A continuing user, contributor and debugger of Mac802.15.4. Many thanks for tracing down some of the most difficult bugs, such as the ones that lead to deadlocks in the mac-layer.

  • Zach Birschoff & Nikolay Valtchanov, Northwestern University, USA
    colleagues developers

  • Rey Abe, National Institute of Informatics, Japan
    Thank you Rey for your input on the debugging phase of Mac802.15.4

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