Modeling and Optimization of Parallel and Distributed Embedded Systems

Chapter 2Multicore-Based EWSNs—An Example of Parallel and Distributed Embedded Systems^*

Advancements in silicon technology, embedded systems, sensors, micro-electro-mechanical systems, and wireless communications have led to the emergence of embedded wireless sensor networks (EWSNs). EWSNs consist of sensor nodes with embedded sensors to sense data about a phenomenon, and these sensor nodes communicate with neighboring sensor nodes over wireless links. Many emerging EWSN applications (e.g., surveillance, volcano monitoring) require a plethora of sensors (e.g., acoustic, seismic, temperature, and, more recently, image sensors and/or smart cameras) embedded in the sensor nodes. Although traditional EWSNs equipped with scalar sensors (e.g., temperature, humidity) transmit most of the sensed information to a sink node (base station node), this sense-transmit paradigm is becoming infeasible for information-hungry applications equipped with a plethora of sensors, including image sensors and/or smart cameras.

Processing and transmission of the large amount of sensed data in emerging applications exceed the capabilities of traditional EWSNs. For example, consider a military EWSN deployed in a battlefield, which requires various sensors, such as imaging, acoustic, and electromagnetic sensors. This application presents various challenges for existing EWSNs since transmission of high-resolution images and video streams over bandwidth-limited wireless links from sensor nodes to the sink ...