However, a concurrent development of
complementary theoretical models for these protocols is essential for the rapid
advancement of this technology. This is because the severe resource constraints
on energy, computation, and storage that are characteristic of these networks
make it crucial to optimize protocols, in order to maximize network lifetime
while providing an acceptable quality of sensed information.
We survey in this chapter some examples drawn from recent studies pertaining
to data gathering in sensor networks. These examples demonstrate the
importance of optimizing protocol parameters carefully to maximize performance.
We emphasize the use of a first-order mathematical modeling approach.
The optimizations are all based on simple expressions that are intended to
capture the impact of essential environmental and protocol parameters. This
approach is motivated by the desire to understand easily the key design tradeo
?®s that are involved in each context. As we shall see, even such simple models
can yield fundamental design insights to improve the performance of practical
protocols.
This style of modeling is nicely described in an essay written by the noted
economist, Prof. Hal Varian, titled ???How to build an economic model in your
spare time??? [1]:
???The critical advice here is KISS: keep it simple, stupid. Write down
the simplest model you can think of, and see if it still exhibits some
interesting behavior.
Pages:
592
593
594
595
596
597
598
599
600
601
602
603
604
605
606
607
608
609
610
611
612
613
614
615
616