Dynamic Resource Management in Wireless Networks

Wireless Communication has been a rapidly growing industry over the past decade. The mobile and portable device market has boomed with the advent of new data, multi media and voice technologies. The technical advances in mobile and personalized computer fields have accelerated wireless communication into a crucial segment of the communication industry. Introduction of smart phones and hand held devices with internet browsing, email, and multi-media services, has made it essential to add features like security, reliability etc over the wireless network. Wireless sensor networks which are a subset of the wireless ad hoc networks have been deployed in various military and defense applications. The popularity of 802.11 technologies have led to large scale manufacturing of 802.11 chipsets and reduced the cost drastically. Thus enabling deployment of large scale wifi networks resembling sensor environment. As wireless communication uses air interface it is challenging to support such advanced QoS (Quality Of Service), features due to external interference. Some of the typical interference encountered is from other electronic devices like microwaves, environmental interference like rain, and from physical structures like buildings. Also it is a known fact that battery technology hasn't kept pace with the electronics industry. Consequently to add portability to these wireless devices it has become essential to cut down on energy sources embedded within these devices. Hence wireless equipment designers have to combat interference with minimal power expenditure. To best utilize the limited resources of these wireless devices and guarantee QoS it is essential to design specialized algorithms spanning across all layers of the network. These algorithms should not only take into account the network parameters but also dynamically adapt to the changes in the network configurations, traffic etc. The complete set of such techniques constitutes what can be described as Dynamic Resource Management In Wireless Networks. The proposed research was aimed to design techniques such as dynamic channel allocation, energy efficient clustering and reliable power aware routing. Clustering is one of the energy efficient architecture in wireless ad hoc networks and more specifically used in sensor network like environment. Clustering is achieved by grouping devices together based on location, traffic generation etc. Clustering not only limits energy spent by devices in communication, but also aids in better utilization of channel by avoiding collisions. Clustering makes sure that devices communicate with their respective cluster head with minimal required power thereby causing very less interference to the devices in the neighboring cluster. It also makes it possible to combine and compress the information at the CH (Cluster Head) before relaying it to the central collection or base station. Spectrum Management in wireless networks is achieved by dynamically allocating wireless channels between AP's (Access Point) which help enhancing effective throughput by curbing interference. In the case of sensor networks every cluster represents a Autonomous Set and the CH serving as the AP. Channel Allocation schemes proposed in this research proposal drastically reduce the interference between neighboring AP's and their clients by assigning them different channels and ensuring minimal interference. Minimal interference leads to fewer collisions and less energy expenditure for the sensor nodes. The final step after forming cluster and minimizing interference is to find a suitable path to route data to the base station or collection center. The research proposed schemes...