A Survey of Self-Organization in Wireless Networks

Published

January 1, 2007

Author(s)

Kevin L. Mills

Abstract

This paper surveys recent research on self-organizing techniques applied to design and control large wireless ad hoc and sensor networks. The survey divides that research into five functional categories: (1) resource sharing, (2) structure formation and maintenance, (3) behavior shaping, (4) resource management, and (5) resiliency. The paper also provides a brief outline of current scientific thinking regarding self-organization, both as a natural property of complex adaptive systems and as a design strategy to control distributed systems. The survey raises several concerns that remain to be addressed by researchers. Can large, wireless systems be designed within a self-organizing framework to meet a comprehensive set of design objectives? Can one set of self-organizing principles be defined, understood and applied to design distributed systems? Can mixed models of self-organization operate simultaneously within a single system without muting, amplifying or interfering with each other? Will self-organized distributed systems achieve stable states, or exhibit phase transitions to turbulent periods, oscillations or chaos? Can techniques be discovered to measure, analyze, visualize and understand global behavior in large distributed systems? Large wireless ad hoc and sensor networks cannot be designed without a foundation of self-organizing strategies; yet the number and significance of unanswered questions suggests that deploying such networks would prove quite risky.

Citation

Journal of Wireless Communications and Mobile Computing

Volume

7

Issue

7

Pub Type

Journals

Keywords

Mobile Ad Hoc Networks, Self-organization, Sensor Networks and Wireless Networks

Citation

Mills, K. (2007), A Survey of Self-Organization in Wireless Networks, Journal of Wireless Communications and Mobile Computing (Accessed April 18, 2024)