Computer Science & Software Engineering Mobile and Wireless Computing (CITS7219)

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Mobile and Wireless Computing 2009 – Research Paper on Wireless Sensor Networks

"Scientists from the University of Western Australia’s School of Animal Biology are looking for a way to monitor the movement of a flocks of 10,000 to 15,000 sheep in Western Australia’s rangeland near Meekathara. The main problem is to remotely monitor and possibly control the movement of flocks of sheep, answering such questions as “where are the sheep?”, “are any sheep separated from the main flock?”, “are the sheep near water?”. A possible solution to this problem is to develop a sensor network of low costs nodes, each mounted on one sheep (but not the whole flock), combined with some higher power nodes on selected sheep, or high power nodes at fixed locations. The network must be able to communicate the current status of a sheep flock over a distance of 50 to 100 kms a farm base station 4 to 12 times a day. "

Your task is to write a short research paper recommending suitable sensor network hardware and protocols for this application, together with simulated results of the behaviour of your protocol to support your recommendations. The paper should be no more than 4 pages using the 2 column template provided (see below).

Background Reading: Thorstensen, B., Syversen, T., Bjørnvold, T., and Walseth, T. 2004. Electronic shepherd - a low-cost, low-bandwidth, wireless network system. In Proceedings of the 2nd international Conference on Mobile Systems, Applications, and Services (Boston, MA, USA, June 06 - 09, 2004). MobiSys '04. ACM, New York, NY, 245-255. DOI= http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/990064.990094

Note that although the Electronic Shepherd problem has similarities with your task, there are also differences, and so your solution will need to be distinctly different.

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The fine print

• The deadline for this assessment is 12noon Friday 23rd October (end of the semester).
• The research paper contributes 20% of your assessment in Mobile and Wireless Computing this year.
• By the deadline you should hand in a printed copy of your research paper to the CSSE front office, and sign the CSSE submission declaration form.
• By the deadline you should also submit an electronic copy of your research paper. Use the web-based submission program, cssubmit, to submit:
• A single file (doc or pdf) of your essay.
• Ensure that your name(s) and student number(s) appear on the front page of both submissions. There is no need for a cover page or to bind your essay.
• You may choose to work alone, or in a team of two (only).
  
  
• Your research paper should be at most 2000 words in length, excluding references.
• A word document template for the format of your research paper is provided here (based on the CSSE Research Conference template). The template also suggests the sections that should be included in your final paper, together with suggestions for the material that should be covered in each section.
• Your essay should make reference to several technical publications, such as fully-refereed journal and conference papers. Journal and conference papers are strongly preferred to newspaper or magazine articles, or un-refereed articles only published online. You should cite your information sources in a consistent manner as shown in the template.
  
  
• Your submission is expected to be either “the sole effort of the student;” or (for teams of two) “the sole effort of a designated group of students who hand in a joint piece of work;” (see http://web.csse.uwa.edu.au/internal_pages/school_policies/plagiarism2 )
• Please post any requests for clarification about the requirements of this assessment to help7219, so that all students may remain equally informed.

Good luck,

Rachel Cardell-Oliver (unit co-lecturer)

Assignment published on CITS7219 web pages September 2009

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