H-MAS: A Heterogeneous, Mobile, Ad-hoc Sensor-Network Simulation Environment

Ad-hoc Sensor Networks are a feasible and rapidly deployable solution to many common environment monitoring applications. In traditional sensor network design, each unit is capable sensing, processing and storing its own local data, as well as using a multi-hop forwarding scheme to send this data to off-network storage. Thus, each network element must fill at least four different rolls: sensing, processing, communication, and storage, each of which may be further subdivided. As nano-scale miniaturization becomes feasible, including complete homogeneous functionality at each node will become an increasingly difficult problem. Pico-radio devices provide a platform by which these responsibilities can be offloaded to different nodes, but still remain accessible through wireless communication. We have developed a conceptual pico-radio sensor network system, and a corresponding design simulation and evaluation environment, H-MAS, that separates the tasks of processing and storage from the sensor nodes. Through agent-based computer simulation using the SWARM toolkit, we will compare the effectiveness of current medium access, routing, organization, and energy conservation techniques on H-MAS, and derive several heuristics and design rules for various network configurations. The visualization side of H-MAS also provides a convenient way to present the design of MAS systems to non-technical personnel.