Reliable Networked Sensing Systems

Past Projects and Future Research Agenda

Jan Beutel, ETH Zurich

Past Research Projects

2000 – 2007 BTnode ProjectCollaborators: F. Mattern, K. Römer (all ETH Zurich) and R. Schmid (Art of Technology, Zurich)

2001 – 2005 NCCR MICS – Communicating Embedded SystemsCollaborators: F. Mattern and R. Wattenhofer (all ETH Zurich) and A. Schiper (EPF Lausanne)

2000 – 2004 Miniaturized Wearable Computing: Technology and Applications Collaborators: G. Tröster, B. Schiele and L. van Gool (all ETH Zurich)

2001 NetsimCollaborators: E. Wandeler and A. Zollinger (all ETH Zurich)

1999 PicoRadioCollaborators: B. Brodersen, J. Rabaey and P. Wright (all UC Berkeley)

1998 – 1999 WinCE EngineCollaborators: T. Bösch (ETH Zurich) and A. Thiel (u-blox AG, Zurich)

1998 GPS-E1 Evaluation KitCollaborators: A. Thiel and J.P. Wyss (all u-blox AG, Zurich)

1997 – 1998 Palm Pilot KioskCollaborators: T. Bösch (ETH Zurich)

1997 Build Your WorldCollaborators: B. Plattner, M. Kreuzer (all ETH Zurich) and M. Manegold (Imagimation, Zug)

1995 – 1998 ThixoStructCollaborators: A. Wahlen (ETH Zurich) and Aluminum Martigny (Martigny, CH)

Current and Future Research Projects

2008 – 2012 nano-tera.ch – OpenSense, WaWa-NodeFunction: co-investigator, under review

2009 – 2012 NCCR MICS PermaSense-III, Observability by DesignFunction: principal investigator

2008 – 2010 The Swiss ExperimentFunction: principal investigatorFunding: CCES, SNSF, Microsoft Research; 570’000 CHF for the individual project (3 years)

2006 – 2008 Safety Critical Sensor Networks for Building ApplicationsFunction: principal investigatorFunding: CTI and Siemens Building Technologies, Zug, Switzerland; 699’000 CHF (3 years)

2005 – 2009 NCCR MICS PermaSense-II/EMSRFunction: principal investigatorFunding: SNSF, Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN); 580’000 CHF (3 years)

Sensor Network Platform KitFunction: principal investigatorFunding: 670’000 CHF (3 years)

Deployment of Sensor NetworksFunction: co-investigatorFunding: 900’000 CHF (4 years)

Serious Building GamesFunction: co-investigatorFunding: joint funding with “Deployment of Sensor Networks”

Finances and Technical Staff

• Participated in the acquisition of 3.419 MCHF third party funding– 1/3 principal investigator, 2/3 co-investigator with Lothar Thiele

• Current technical staff (2FTE + HA)– Mustafa Yücel, Roman Lim – software engineer, Platform Kit – since

10/2006– Josua Hunziker – student helper, PermaSense project – since 08/2008

• Past technical staff– Tobias Rein – project engineer, Platform Kit – 05/2007 to 08/2007– Vinodh Venkatesan – student helper, DSN – 10/2006 to 07/2007– Kevin Martin – software engineer, BTnode and DSN – 08/2005 to

01/2007– Martin Hinz – software engineer, BTnode platform – 08/2003 to 09/2004

Supervision and Research Staff

• Supervision of 44 students in various master and term theses

• PhD student collaborators– M. Keller – Complex Sensing and Actuation – since 10/2008

– F. Ferrari – Time Triggered Architectures – since 09/2008

– M. Wöhrle – Wireless Sensor Network Testing – since 01/2007

– M. Guo – Time Triggered Architectures – 11/2006 to 10/2008

– A. Meier – Low-power MAC Protocols – since 11/2005on leave at the National University of Singapore from 11/2007 to 04/2008

– C. Moser – Regenerative Energy Supplies – since 10/2004

Teaching

• Design and implementation of the BTnode tutorial for graduate lab accompanying lectures in Embedded Systems and Wireless Sensor Networks– Additional transfer to conference tutorials (INSS, EWSN, ASCI)

• Design and implementation of the MOSES tutorial for a graduate course in Discrete Event Systems

• Lectures in Embedded Systems, Computer Engineering, Hardware- Software Codesign, Ad-hoc and Sensor Networks, Discrete Event Systems, Advanced Computer Architecture

• Frequent invited speaker/lecturer at seminars, summer schools, workshops

Past Achievements – Systems

• System concept and implementation of the Deployment-Support Network– Fundamentally new testbed concepts– Used in-house as well as by industrial partner for actual product

development

• The BTnode Platform for fast-prototyping sensor and ad-hoc network applications– Commercialized, worldwide dissemination, in use for teaching– >1000 units sold to customers from +17 countries– Commercial replicas resulting from open source policy

• Pioneered work in Positioning Algorithms for Low-power Wireless Networks– Still an unsolved problem– Nurturing whole sessions/conferences on the topic

Past Achievements – Dissemination

Publicly Available Hard- and Software Developments– The PermaSense Deployment– Continuous Integration for Wireless Sensor Networks– Sensor Network Platform Kit– The Sensor Network Museumtm

– Deployment-Support Network– The BTnode Platform and BTnut– TinyOS-2.x-contrib– Build Your World – educational CDROM

worldwide dissemination

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BTnode rev3 sales 2004-2007BTnodes

USB Adapter

Publications and Professional Activities

– Book chapter and theses – 5– Peer reviewed journals – 4– Conference and workshop proceedings – 26– Other – 17

• Frequent reviewer and regular member of OC/TPC of the most prominent conferences in the field– SenSys, IPSN/SPOTS, EWSN, DCOSS, EMNETS, INSS, SIGCOMM, DATE, …

• Excellent contacts to the leading researchers in the field, academic and industrial, European, Asian and US

• Regular media presence with research results

ETH Annual Report Features BTnodes

Research Accomplishments – The Bottom Line

• Maybe not the most impressive publication list but predominantly at the premiere conferences.

• An impressive worldwide network of people, contacts and consultancies.

• A systems research agenda based on collaboration across disciplines and institutional borders.

• Successful set of end-to-end systems implementations allowing sound reality checking.

• Initiated and now leading a new research focus on wireless embedded systems research at ETHZ including solid funding.

FUTURE AGENDA

Trends in Information and Communication

New Applications andSystem Paradigms

Large-scaleDistributed Systems

CentralizedSystems

NetworkedSystems

Internet

Beyond the proof-of-concept of 1st Generation Wireless Sensor Network Research

• More an “art” than a coordinated effort yielding predictable results

• First generation research provided the proof-of-concept– Performance is poor– Causes are not fully understood– We are often lacking the

necessary (scientific) rigor

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Reliable Wireless Networked Systems?

• The ability of a system or component to perform its required or designated functions under stated conditions for a specified period of time.

• Key issues: complexity – resources – power – interaction

• More so: The way we go about solving the problems encountered

• Non-iterative design process for networked systems– Predictable results– Reduction/capping of efforts required– Increasing the quality of the design, e.g. “correct-by-construction”

• Full end-to-end validation of all processes– Today cumbersome and error prone – if at all possible

A Vision of Future WSN Design Methodology...

• (Live) back annotation into the design space– „Closed loop“ system design– Including live data from simulation, testbeds, deployments

• Allowing to refine and validate architectural decisions, models, algorithms and implementations...

APP

COMMSENS OS

Continuous

Integration

Testbed

Infrastructure

Physical Characterization

Design Flow

A Facetted Yet Focused Systems Research Agenda

• System architecture, software and models– TinyOS, BTnodes, BTnut– Low-power protocols– Design-space exploration, formal metrics,

real-time

• Test and validation methodology– DSN testbed, deployment tools– Multi-context tracing– Unit testing, formal models

• Sensor network deployments– Design methodology, platform kit– Smart Buildings, PermaSense

Architecture

Testing

Applications

My Research Should…

• Be of value to and used by researchers and practitioners alike.

• Meaningful results at the forefront of technology.

• Enable sustainable solutions with impact and longevity.

• Empower architects and designers with the right principles, abstractions and tools for achieving a specified functionality in deterministic time.

• My work so far is stepping stones in this direction. We are starting to see the actual sweet spots. But there is more mileage ahead.

Embedding My Work In Sweden

• Existing interactions– SICS (Thiemo Voigt, Adam Dunkels)– UU (Per Gunningberg, Christian Rohner, Bengt Jonsson, Wang Yi)

• Many interesting partners in Engineering Sciences and Information Technology – further application partners in other departments

• WISENET VINN excellence center– Topics of interest: Node integration & energy, networking, wireless

protocols, application projects– Interdisciplinary focus with integration of devices (MEMS, packaging),

sensors and batteries is an asset to my own work/network

• My contributions– 7+ years experience from involvement in NCCR MICS – Active international network

Educational Goals

• Fundamentals & theory– Solid foundation in embedded & real-time systems, system

architecture, design automation, algorithm design, signal processing, wireless and mobile systems

• Hands-on experience– Labs, group projects (e.g. Lego Mindstorms based 1st year students)– Integration of students into real-life research efforts

• Active discourse on current (hot) and emerging topics– Cross-disciplinary reading seminars on recent (local) work– Knowledge of peers– Fostering interaction and dialogue with experts from academia and

industry– Scientific writing, presentation, researching and reviewing skills