Wireless sensor networks (WSN) appear a promising tool to build ambient intelligence systems even if past research has been primarily focused on internal issues like routing, self-organization, MAC layer design, data aggregation, while the interaction between the WSN and the external world has not been investigated so deeply. On the contrary, we consider fundamental the identification of effective technologies for the interaction of users with WSN's and the integration of their functionalities with remote services.
The main objective of this proposal is to develop methods and tools for building heterogeneous systems in which WSN's and traditional communication networks cooperate to monitor and improve the quality of life in common habitats, e.g., home, car and city environment. In particular the maintenance of the personal health potentiality will be addressed.
In the analyzed scenario, users communicate with WSN's through a dedicated node called gateway. This node is responsible for injecting queries into the network, gathering responses and presenting them to users. The gateway communicates with the WSN through short-range wireless links, and it interacts with the user directly or remotely through traditional communication networks both wireline and mobile. The project considers the mobile handset as the ad hoc gateway. The usage of a co-simulation tool, based on NS-2, SystemC and ISS, guarantees the optimized interaction between the ad hoc network and the mobile infrastructure.
Moreover thanks to this co-simulation environment a fine tuning of the protocol stack and algorithms, to obtain efficient synergy and design optimization. The project addresses the security issues in terms of encryption algorithms and protocols to define a trusted architecture.