Patent ID: 7822852
Filing Date: 2010-10-26
Classification: H04L,H04W,Y02D

Abstract:
1. A method for continually controlling collective behavior of a variable set of sensor nodes in a sensor network, the method comprising: disseminating a first broadcast message from a gateway node comprising an initial specification request to the set of sensor nodes in the sensor network, wherein the initial specification request comprises a set of parameters and predicates, wherein the set of parameters specify a desired quality of information, a duration of time, a frequency of notification, and a sensor activation probability value of an individual sensor node to automatically perform a requested behavior, wherein the predicates of the specification request specify attributes of sensor nodes that are candidate targets of the specification request, and wherein the gateway node is unaware of a number and identity of individual sensor nodes in the set of sensor nodes; responsive to a number of sensor nodes in the set of sensor nodes automatically performing the requested behavior according to the sensor activation probability value in the initial specification request, observing data communicated from the set of sensor nodes, wherein a computed quality of information value representing a collective behavior of the set of sensor nodes is calculated for the set of sensor nodes using the data; and responsive to a determination that the computed quality of information is not within a desired range of the desired quality of information, iteratively modifying a subsequent set of parameters comprising new sensor activation probability values disseminated in subsequent specification requests based on a divergence between the computed quality of information value and the desired quality of information value, wherein the predicates of the subsequent specification requests are used to determine a subset of the set of sensor nodes, wherein an individual sensor node in the subset of the set of sensor nodes adjusts its individual behavior based on the new sensor activation probability values disseminated in the subsequent specification requests, wherein the computed quality of information value is re-calculated for each subsequent specification request comprising new sensor activation probability values until adjustments in individual behaviors of the subset of the set of sensor nodes allow the computed quality of information values representing the collective behavior of the set of sensor nodes to satisfy the desired quality of information value, wherein the iteratively modifying step further comprises using a control theory technique to compute the subsequent set of parameters disseminated in the subsequent specification request.