ZebraNet and beyond: applications and systems support for mobile, dynamic networks

Abstract

Mobile and wireless computing has the potential to offer the next big revolution in how we relate to and make use of our computing devices. In addition to untethered operation, mobile and distributed systems offer the opportunity to consider new computational models in which dynamic, sparsely-connected confederations of embedded computing devices collaborate across wide areas to gather information and solve problems. These systems, however, face significant energy, form-factor and connectivity constraints that influence how they should be designed. In this talk, I will describe our experiences building the ZebraNet system for wildlife tracking, based on sparse, mobile collections of GPS-based sensing devices. Drawing from ZebraNet and other systems experiences, my most recent work seeks to provide dynamic, optimizable systems layers for expressing mobile node relationships and for allowing distributed confederations of nodes to collaborate. I will discuss both the technical challenges of dynamic networks, as well as the broader opportunities for deploying such networks, particularly in low-infrastructure developing regions.