Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Emergent Behavior In Massively-Deployed Sensor Networks, Ekaterina Shurkova, Ruzana Ishak, Stephan Olariu, Shaharuddin Salleh

Computer Science Faculty Publications

The phenomenal advances in MEMS and nanotechnology make it feasible to build small devices, referred to as sensors that are able to sense, compute and communicate over small distances. The massive deployment of these small devices raises the fascinating question of whether or not the sensors, as a collectivity, will display emergent behavior, just as living organisms do. In this work we report on a recent effort intended to observe emerging behavior of large groups of sensor nodes, like living cells demonstrate. Imagine a massive deployment of sensors that can be in two states "red" and "blue". At deployment time …