Exam Study Guide

1. Traditional Wireless Sensor Networks versus mobile sensing applications
   1. biggest challenges for each type of system and general approaches used to address those challenges
2. Example sensing applications
   1. taxonomy of applications
3. Typical system architecture
   1. advantages/disadvantages for different types of applications
4. Mobile phone programming
   1. understanding what you have implemented
   2. challenges discussed in class/on the mailing list
   3. limitations
   4. programming models - iOS versus Android
5. Pivotal tracker - how have you used it?
6. Trendulate - experience using the API
7. Networking
   1. layers of the Internet stack
      1. functionality of each layer
      2. how each layer is implemented in the Internet
      3. why the Internet/wired implementation can/cannot be applied to a sensor network
   2. general architecture of the Internet (packet switching, hierarchical structure)
8. Reread all papers, carefully
   1. What is the general problem the paper is trying to solve?
      1. Do you agree this is a problem?
      2. Is there an easy/easier solution?
      3. Can you think of a solution that might be better?
   2. What are the main contributions of the paper?
      1. Is there a system design that could be used by another researcher or system designer?
      2. Does the paper present results that could inform the design of another system?
      3. Does the paper outline lessons that could be applied elsewhere?
   3. Are the contributions supported by sufficient evidence?
      1. Do the experiments make sense?
      2. Does the analysis of figures/graphs match what you see in the graphs?
      3. Are there any unexplained anomalies in the results?
   4. How would you improve this paper?
      1. Design an additional experiment
      2. How would you extend the system?

Papers:

Programming Wireless Sensor Networks: Fundamental Concepts and State of the Art

Thales Group Whitepaper

A Survey of Mobile Phone Sensing

The Hitchhiker's Guide to Wireless Sensor Network Deployments

Fidelity and Yield in a Volcano Monitoring Sensor Network

Anatomizing Application Performance Differences on Smartphones

Data Muling with Mobile Phones for Sensornets

Duty-Cycling Buildings Aggressively: The Next Frontier in HVAC Control