WSN Update

(Newswise) - The U.S. Department of Defense has awarded a $246,000 Defense University Research Instrumentation Program (DURIP) grant to researchers in Virginia Tech's Bradley Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering for advanced research on wireless communications networks that are critical during military maneuvers.

DURIP grants are highly competitive and are awarded to enhance academic research capabilities in areas that are important to national defense. Among the research proposals selected for this year's DURIP grants, the Virginia Tech project is the only one in the area of wireless networks.

Thomas Hou, an assistant professor of electrical engineering and principal investigator on the DURIP project, will work with Professor Jeffrey Reed, deputy director of Virginia Tech's Mobile and Portable Radio Research Group, and research scientist Shiwen Mao to create a testbed platform for wireless mobile ad hoc networks and wireless sensor networks. The platform will be the first of its kind at a U.S. university.

Military mobile ad hoc wireless networks can be set up to connect military groups that need to maintain communications while on the move - including personnel in the field, tanks and helicopters on maneuvers, or ships at sea, Hou said.

Wireless sensor networks, on the other hand, are stationary. They are often deployed in areas hostile to humans and can relay a variety of observational data - video and audio as well as scalar data such as temperature and pressure - to military personnel stationed at safer vantage points.

More...