Workshop: WMON3

"Wireless Networks in Harsh Environments – Propagation and Coexistence"

Monday 8 Jan., 2007
1:30 - 5:30 PM

Abstract:
Wireless technology is fueling new paradigms in government, personal, commercial, and industrial communication systems throughout the marketplace.  Many companies supplying sensors and instrumentation are coming to the realization that, without a wireless offering, their product line will be very short lived. The industrial community is poised to adopt wireless technology to support technical innovations, e.g., as widespread use of wireless sensors is forecasted to improve manufacturing production and energy efficiency by 10% and reduce emissions by 15%. Environments like the industrial environment are particularly harsh with interference from metal structures etc. (as found in the manufacturing sector), interference generated during wireless propagation and multi-path fading of the RF signal all invite novel mitigation techniques. However, the challenge in achieving the energy efficiency using wireless is closely coupled with maintaining network Quality of Service (QoS) requirements.  Assessment and management of QoS needs to occur, allowing the network to adapt to changes in the RF, information, and operational environments.  The capacity to adapt is paramount to maintaining the required operational performance (throughput, latency, reliability and security). The advent of multiple wireless networks in the same frequency band poses a coexistence problem that needs to be addressed. Modeling EM wave propagation in this kind of highly cluttered environment is also a challenge since ray-tracing methods are non-realistic and finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) methods are computationally expensive. The advent of RFID installation in all the industries for supply chain visibility makes it a timely problem to discuss.

This workshop involves presentations describing the issues and challenges in the applications of wireless networks in harsh environments, and promising future technologies.  The workshop will highlight the problems of dealing with taxonomy of kinds and respective physics of environments, existing and future novel modeling and simulation techniques for predicting radio channel prior to deployment, standards and standards-related activities, and future directions.

Organizers:

Phani Teja Kuruganti and Wayne W. Manges
Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL)

Prof. Ivan Howitt
University of North Carolina, Charlotte (UNCC), Charlotte, NC

Prof. Aly Fathy
University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN

Potential Speakers:

• Teja Kuruganti and Wayne Manges, Oak Ridge National Laboratory
  "Wireless in Extreme Environments – What is the Problem?"

• Peter Fuhr, Apprion Inc.
  "Propagation in Harsh Environments – Lessons Learned"

• Ivan Howitt, University of North Carolina, Charlotte
  "Coexistence Mechanisms in Harsh Industrial Environments"

• Dan Sexton, GE
  "Adapting IEEE 802.15.4 for use in industrial environments"

• Joe Cordaro, Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL)
  "Wireless Environment in Nuclear facilities: Constraints and Solutions"

• Jim Nutaro, Oak Ridge National Laboratory
  "Methodologies for Accurately Simulating Harsh Propagation Environments"

• Brian Armstrong, Eaton Corporation
  "Grenada: A Tool for Assessment of IEEE 802.15.4 Link Quality in Harsh Environments"