AD HOC AND SENSOR NETWORKS: THEORY AND APPLICATIONS

This book introduces a new explanatory cross-layer model specifically designed to understand all aspects of ad hoc and sensor networking, from design through performance issues to application requirements. Future directions, challenges and potential simulation projects are also discussed.

The topics included represent a significant portion of what is going on in academia and industry. The vast materials provided will enable readers to not only understand and position themselves in this hot area, but also to develop new capabilities, enhance skills, share expertise, consolidate knowledge and design future solutions. Thus, the book is useful for researchers and engineers, and anyone who seeks a deeper understanding of this growing field and wishes to pursue it as a future research topic.

This book provides a comprehensive yet easy coverage of ad hoc and sensor networks and fills the gap of existing literature in this growing field. It emphasizes that there is a major interdependence among various layers of the network protocol stack. Contrary to wired or even one-hop cellular networks, the lack of a fixed infrastructure, the inherent mobility, the wireless channel, and the underlying routing mechanism by ad hoc and sensor networks introduce a number of technological challenges that are difficult to address within the boundaries of a single protocol layer.

All existing textbooks on the subject often focus on a specific aspect of the technology, and fail to provide critical insights on cross-layer interdependencies. To fully understand these intriguing networks, one need to grasp specific solutions individually, and also the many interdependencies and cross-layer interactions.