Wireless Sensor Networks (WISENET) - Uppsala University · 2005-12-01 · VinnEX WISENET Uppsala...

VinnEX2004 Proposal

Uppsala Center for

Wireless Sensor Networks (WISENET)

Proposers:

Uppsala University and

Swedish Institute of Computer Science (SICS)

Prof. Anders Ahlen,

Dr. Bengt Ahlgren,

Prof. Per Gunningberg,

Assoc. Prof. Klas Hjort,

Prof. Ilia Katardjiev,

Prof. Anders Rydberg

VinnEX WISENET

Uppsala Center for Wireless Sensor Networks (WISENET)

Application submitted to the Vinnova program VinnEX 2004 on Centers of Excellence Main applicant and contact person: Prof Per Gunningberg, [email protected], 018-471 3171, 070 557 6384 List of enclosures

1 Proposal for Vinn Excellence Center WISENET

2 VINN excellence Center 2004: Strategic support for the strong and innovation en-vironment “WISENET” at Uppsala University

3 Center personell

4 Partner support

5 Contracts and agreements

6 Tentativa projects proposals – first two years

Enclosure 1: Proposal for VINN Excellence CenterWISENET

1.1 Long Term vision and idea and proposed program

Today’s dynamic society demands more and more sensing and monitoring services in everyaspect of life, from control and automation of industrial production, traffic safety, durable eco-systems, public and home security through to sustainable life and health care. To decrease thecosts and to increase productivity in these areas is of utmost importance to our strategic standingas a nation. Monitoring today is either labor intensive, and thus costly, or restricted to a limitedarea due to extensive wiring requirements.

Recent advances in sensor technology, low power electronics, wireless communication andnetworking indicate thatWireless Sensor Networks, WSNs, can in the near future be used formonitoring on a scale that was not previously economically feasible and at places that can notbe easily accessible by wires, such as inside machinery (e.g. on turbine blades), in buildings andconstruction, in remote large terrains, etc. Wireless sensor networks have the potential to createnew industries and to economically renew the basic Swedish industries, such as manufacturing,transportation, forestry, biotechnology, health care, agriculture industries, etc.

WE ENVISION that sensor networks will be so common in our everyday activity that wedo not reflect over them. The impact on the society, industry and everyday life is forecasted tobe of the same scope as that of Internet.

Wireless sensor networks combine processing, sensing and wireless communication intoa tiny embedded device. Peer-to-peer protocols then combine the individual devices into aninterconnected system where data is seamlessly routed among available nodes. Such devicesare eventually expected to cost less than 1 Euro with sizes1 smaller than 1 mm3. Wirelesssensor networks - incorporating hundreds, even thousands, of tiny interconnected monitoringdevices can be launched anywhere and almost instantly since there is no need for wiring. If thisvision could be fulfilled an almost unimaginable number of new applications can be developed.

THE MISSION OF the proposed center WISENET is to enable wireless sensor networksthat meet current and future requirements on functionality, size, cost, endurance, reliability,energy handling, sensitivity and security to provide monitor information from its environmentto the user, possibly over the Internet. The three main goals of the Center are:

• to become one of the leading multidisciplinary centers on wireless sensor networks in theworld,

• to provide prototypes and other top level research results for further commercializationby industrial/other partners to strengthen their competitiveness,

• to create new study programs on WSNs for PhD and Master students as well as to providespecialized courses for industry.

Wireless Sensor Networks is an emerging technology which has been researched exten-sively for the last decade. There exist research prototypes and even commercial products whichtypically are scaled down embedded computer systems, normally with the size of a match box.But they are still too bulky, too expensive, demand large battery packs and are cumbersome toprogram. Examples of companies offering such products include: Chipcon, Crossbow, Dust

1Sizes as small as grain is commonly known as "Smart Dust".

1-1

WISENET Enclosure 1: Proposal for VINN Excellence Center WISENET 1-2

Networks, Intel, Microsoft Research and Motorola. Several companies have also joined theZigbee Alliance2, [1], its mission is to provide consumers with flexibility, mobility, and ease ofuse by building wireless intelligence and capabilities into everyday devices.

While many applications can be approached with today’s WSN technology, sensor size,longevity, energy consumption, and cost constitute severe obstacles for WSN to be widely used.Research on WSN has, in fact, just begun and many difficult issues still remain to be resolved.Most of the research on sensor networks so far has been done within related traditional fields,such as operating systems, networking, communication, micro systems, sensors, data fusionas well as energy management, storage and harvesting. To reach further, a multidisciplinaryapproach is now necessary, combining the expertise from all these fields. A grain size sensor isa very challenging problem especially from the energy point of view and therefore it is likelythat future sensor systems will have a range of sizes and capabilities instead of only one size.We believe that in a 7-10 years perspective our main objective, if it has to be expressed in oneline, can be formulated as follows:

“To provide secure wireless sensor networks with multi-purpose sensors in devicesthe size of a sugar lump, which are self-configuring, maintenance-free, and have alifetime of up to ten years at a cost of one euro per sensor unit.”

The development of wireless sensor networks is pushed by new technology and driven byapplications. A close partnership with industry and other organizations providing applicationknowledge is essential, since the type of sensors and their organization are so intimately coupledto the applications. Together with industrial partners we will use the technology and researchof today to solve current and future application problems and outstanding issues (e.g. securityand dependability) that are not constrained by the size.

1.1.1 Impact on industry and sustained growth

Wireless sensor networks build on, and extend the well known strength of Swedish industryto build complex embedded systems. Sweden is also very strong in wireless communication,process control and in new emerging areas such as environmental control. Sweden has, there-fore, the potential to become both an industrial leader in building and exporting WSNs as wellas using them. The proposed Center will be in the international research forefront and providenecessary knowledge for Swedish industry.

WSNs have the potential to economically renew the Swedish basic industries, such as pro-cess, transportation, forestry and agriculture industries, to create new industries in eco-systemcontrol and to ease the labor intensive health care monitoring. The growth impact is potentiallyhuge and is expected to be sustained. Individuals are also likely to benefit more directly fromsensor networks, both at home as well at work simplifying the day-to-day tasks. The potentialapplications in the economic, ecological and societal areas will be further elaborated around anumber of examples in the following sections.

Sustained economic growth

Sensors in general are very important for Swedish industry, in particular for the processingindustry. The sensor market is expected to have large growth, where e.g. the US sensor industryalone is expected to have a $13,8 Billion turnover in year 2008.

2Zigbee is built on the IEEE 802.11.4 standard for communication between small devices.


Automation industry: The process control and automation industry will directly benefit fromWSNs and it is likely that they quickly will depend on them. Why? By using the data processingcapabilities of smart sensors and to create networks of sensors, process control can be decen-tralized and operate adaptively to varying situations. The regular centralized control, whichrequires lots of wires and data flow, can be avoided by this decentralization. For example,sensors could be attached to machinery to detect vibrations and excessive temperatures and todecide together when it is time for maintenance. New processes can also be launched muchquicker since there is no need to change the wiring infrastructure. In addition, wireless sensorscan be attached to mobile units and could be embedded into products to more exactly controlprocesses, e.g. in paper pulp, in chemical product lines, in pharmaceutical production or infood processing. Less costly process control and more precise control for better products willnaturally lead to sustained economic growth.

Transportation sector: Sensors are today frequently used in vehicles and aircrafts manufac-tured by Swedish industry. By using wireless and networks of sensors, heavy and complexwiring can be reduced, saving transportation energy. Furthermore, wireless sensors in vehiclescan easily interact with sensors outside the vehicle, e.g. at curbside for increased safety andmore fuel-efficient driving. For example, information from sensors that measure frost damagedroads can be used for scheduling log trucks to the times the roads can carry the weight. Sensorswill be used in rail inspection, braking systems, railroad crossings, defect detection, and forplanning and scheduling maintenance. Sensors for traffic management will pave the way for in-telligent traffic systems making it possible to interface new types of sensors for classification ofvehicles, road/rail conditions, traffic information, remote toll payment, etc. Sensors housed in avehicle can be used for measuring the condition and performance of roads or rails continuously.The data can then be collected using receiving sensors along the road, fused with other sensordate and forwarded to a traffic control center. This will improve the cost effectiveness of roadmanagement and lead to a better utilization of a road or railway system.

Agriculture, forestry and fishing: Sensor networks have the potential to make agriculture,fishing and forest industry much more efficient. By launching sensors in agricultural fields andcollecting information about growth factors, a much higher precision of water, fertilizer andpesticide use can be attained in various parts of the field. For example, hundreds of sensors couldbe launched in an area for studying how grow factors interact with the living organisms. Theaccuracy and the amount of information obtained would be impossible to get with traditionalwired sensors. Analogous arguments for increased efficiency can be applied to the forestry andfishing environments. Inexpensive wireless sensors can also be used to measure food qualityduring processing, supervise packages, transportation and at home.

Defence and peacekeeping industry: Sensor networks will be vital for the Swedish defenceand military industry. Peace keeping forces could launch a massive amount of sensors over areasto detect troop movements, detect vehicle noise signatures, explosives, chemical warfare, radiolistening, etc, and they could propagate that information back for tactical decisions. The abilityto distribute large numbers of sensor nodes enables these devices to be close to the targetedthreats and will therefore improve detection efficiencies and enable rapid counter responses.Intelligent mine sniffers could thus be spread out to detect mines, localize them and could warnpeople when approaching a mine field.


Biotechnology and Pharmaceutics: High performance multifunctional sensors (tempera-ture, flow, pressure, turbulence, chemical, biochemical) are of great importance for the phar-maceutical industry and biotechnology. Today the industry is in an urgent need of such sensorsas recent legislation changes allow and necessitate a much stricter control and monitoring of agiven biotechnological process. Not only will this result in a much more efficient and optimalprocess development but equally importantly will also enable rapid development of new drugsand fabrication processes. Sweden is a leading force in this branch and Swedish industry hasexpressed a strong interest to participate actively in it.

Applications for an ecological sustained society

Wireless sensor networks are very suitable for monitoring large areas for contaminations, forstudying local ecosystems and for controlling large biological recycling processes. For exam-ple, by using positioning capabilities built into the network, the magnitude, the speed and thelocation of the source of a contamination can early be determined, monitored continually andthen be contained much earlier compared to traditional systems. This approach of rapidly dis-tributing sensors is also appropriate for our road system at accidents with hazardous cargos.

Wireless sensor networks can be launched to monitor public services that are otherwisenot accessible, such as in sewage plants, to detect energy leakage in heat distribution pipes("fjärrvärmeverk"), and to monitor fresh water quality. Wireless sensor network can be used formonitoring sensitive aquatic environments like the Baltic Sea - assume an array of submergednodes equipped with sensors for physical, chemical, or biological parameters. Their collectedinformation could be forwarded to a special 3G/satellite capable node which send it to shorefor display and evaluation. Hence, sensor networks will be a vital component for ensuring amore ecologically friendly society and will give a technological edge to Swedish industry inenvironment control.

It is likely that new branches in biotechnology will emerge, say in monitoring and control-ling environmental factors. For example, there is already a market for microclimate control inthe home that can be individually adjusted to a much finer grade that can be done today. Newsensors, e.g. for allergy levels based on individuals requirements, could easily be incorporatedinto such advanced control systems. The wireless aspect and the cost factor make it nowadaysnot feasible to install such a control system in new and old homes.

Sensors on board satellites and placed in arctic regions can be used for investigation of snowcover variability, since the snow cover plays an integral role in the energy and water cycles andis used in climatological and hydrological modeling of the earth.

Individual and societal impact

Wireless sensor networks are likely to be used in all aspects of society as a whole. Individualsare likely to interact directly with sensor networks at home and at work. It should also be notedthat public pervasive sensor networks also could be misused by collecting private informationon users’ location and sensor interaction.

Public health: Public health care is seen as a huge potential user and beneficiary of sensornetworks. For example, small wireless sensors could be carried around measuring vital bodyinformation. The information could then be fused, processed and a decision could be taken bythe participating sensors instead of sending all information to the outside world for processing.By offloading health care professionals the manual tasks of frequently monitoring and collectingbody information they could spend their time on other tasks. Furthermore, carrying monitoring


equipment without wires would increase the mobility of patients without sacrificing flow ofdata. Another very important area is diagnostics as well as home care of patients and elderly.The type of biosensors to be devised are both high performance, low cost and hence disposable.This means that bioanalysis can be done on site instead of sending the samples to specializedlaboratories, making health care much more efficient in addition to facilitating quick diagnosis.Further, both disease treatment and prophylactics in the home will highly benefit from WSNs.Today we pay our bills, trade stocks, communicate, etc via internet from the comfort of ourhomes - something which was considered futuristic some 10-15 years ago. Imagine makingbiochemical analysis as well as taking other patient data at home and having sent them to acentral data base on a regular basis. Then a central computer analyses and monitors the statusof the patient and makes early diagnostics so vital for the success of any treatment in addition totremendously boosting another branch of medicine - preventive health care and mass screening.The latter at present is a very expensive undertaking. Not to mention smart pills, functionalbody implants, novel bioanalytical tools for DNA and protein analysis, etc. Needless to say thatthese and other similar ideas can potentially revolutionise health care as a whole.

Public infrastructure and security: Public buildings and infrastructures are other attractiveareas for WSNs. Wireless sensors could be embedded into the structures of old buildings andbridges to monitor the decaying process and to detect hazardous deviations. The sensors couldeven process the gathered information and decide when to raise an alarm. Crucial for thisoperation is the endurance with respect to power, security and reliability. Vital public sites,buildings and infrastructure can also be monitored constantly. Think about airport safety andsecurity where WSNs constantly sniff lounges and service facilities for drugs and explosives.The same can be done in the passenger and luggage cabin of an airplane taking advantage of thelong exposure times. Other examples include monitoring of the level of pollution in cities andindustrial facilities, water supplies, natural environment, etc. Large industrial accidents, whichunfortunately is not a rare event, can potentially have a devastating effect on the environmentand the population. Quickly deploying a large network of sensors to monitor the progress of thecontamination is of vital importance for minimizing the consequences of the accident.

1.1.2 A wireless sensor network center in Uppsala

We propose a multidisciplinary research center on Wireless Sensor Networks, WISENET, atUppsala University. Why? Uppsala University is a complete university, it provides all the nec-essary disciplines and a multitude of relevant application areas for sensor networks within, e.g.Biology, Physics and Health Care. The center follows the strategic profiles of Uppsala Uni-versity by truly being a center of multidisciplinary research: combining research on materialsscience (microsystems, thin films and nano-sensorics), radio communication and signal pro-cessen, as well as IT (system technology, network communication and embedded systems) tosolve the fundamental issues on wireless sensor networks.

The partners are located on the same campus area and will create a geographically closecenter with the necessary critical mass. The partner SICS is mainly located in Kista but with anoffice at Uppsala Science Park. Our industrial contacts, scientific competence and internation-ally widely acclaimed expertise provide a solid basis for setting up a strong national researchCenter in the field. All applicants have high international visibility, which has attracted re-searchers from other countries to their groups.

All applicants have long experiences in either managing competence centers, coordinatingEU projects or managing other larger projects. We also note that four of them have significant


entrepreneurial backgrounds, by starting companies in their careers. That background increasesthe probability of spin-off companies from the center. The combined competence of the appli-cants is more than sufficient for an efficient functioning of the proposed Center.

1.1.3 Partners from industry and public organizations

While the academic parties are committed to produce top level research, publications, and PhDtheses, real impact is only achieved by addressing real-world problems. Therefore, and in orderto attain sustainable growth, the Center will be working side-by-side with industrial partieswhen formulating and solving problems. The most influential research arises when problemsare taken from the real world; these are then generalized and solved in a generic fashion. Specialcases of the solutions are then applied to the original problem. All members of the team havetrack records on working closely with industry.

There is a significant industry interest in the proposed center. We have 16 industries or pub-lic organizations who will directly participate in the Center. (They will be presented in detailsection 4 and in Enclosure 2 to this proposal.) During the lifetime of the Center it is expectedthat new ones will join it while others may leave at appropriate times. The partners are carefullyselected with respect to relevance, importance, know how, expertise, interest, innovation trans-fer and synergies between them. There is a mixture of small and large companies (e.g. ABB),large research institutes and small research and development companies, as well as a fruitfulmixture between public organizations and consulting companies. There are real "Triple Helix"possibilities in this constellation. For example, the following constellation could be gatheredaround sensors for traffic monitoring: Vägverket (the Swedish Road Administration) is inter-ested in curbside sensors, while TRIONA consults on traffic monitoring, FOI do monitoring ofmilitary vehicles for the Swedish Defense Administration, while Hectronic builds embeddedsystems and Ericsson is interested in sensor gateways that use 3G/4G systems, possibly to beused to send traffic information. Another example is from the health sector: Academic Hospitalof Uppsala is interested in technologies for medical care. Radi Medical systems manufacturedevices in the field of interventional cardiology. SenseAir, BioSensor Applications, and HökInstruments are all interested, to a large degree, in sensing air quality with specialized highprecision sensors.

1.1.4 Means to Fulfill the Vision

We strongly believe that our goals are fully attainable. However, to achieve them, a truly multi-disciplinary approach, where researchers and specialists from different areas work side by sideto solve the problems is required. We are, therefore, committed to form an organization cen-tered around projects. Projects will be formulated so that more than two parties participate inthem. In this way, we prevent the suboptimal approach of every party working on his own: Thelead theme of the Center is “team work” as opposed to “ business as usual”.

The Center will work with both short term as well as long term goals. The long term goalsare clearly more challenging. Short term goals may be based on the capabilities of existinggenerations of sensor nodes to solve current problems. Examples of problem areas that can beaddressed with current the generation technology include: routing, self-configuring and secu-rity. Also, application oriented problems from our industrial partners are likely to have shorterterm goals. For testing ideas and prototypes test-beds of successive generations of WSNs willbe developed. These will also be used for demonstration and educational purposes as well.


We will also take advantage of ongoing collaboration within related EU projects includ-ing: e-CUBES, RUNES, Embedded WiSeNts, HAGGLE, FLEXIS, WINNER, and AmbientNetworks, where members of the team participate. We also participate in the related NoEsALISTORE and NEWCOM. We will also seek formal collaboration with other WSN centersaround the world.

Past collaboration

The constellation of groups in the Center is indeed untested but it is fair to note that many ofthe groups have had and still have close collaboration in other projects for a number of years.The wireless communication and radio interface groups, for instance, have a long-standingcollaboration. The networking group and SICS are currently collaborating in the ongoing SSFproject Winternet and they have been working together in projects for the last 10 years. Theyalso jointly organized the first International Workshop on Real-World Wireless Sensor Networksin Stockholm, June 2005 and will organize the next one in Uppsala, June 2006. During the last 3years the microsystem group has been collaborating in several projects with the radio interfacegroup (on ion track based RF-MEMS) and with the thin film sensor technology group (FBARbased oscillators and chemical sensors). From the successful recent collaborations the radiointerface and microsystem groups are jointly involved in AMICOM and e-CUBES, and haveseveral pending European proposals. All these collaborations have demonstrated the value ofworking across different disciplines.

1.2 Research program

1.2.1 Research vision

Let us imagine a generic family of sensors of size 5×5×5 mm, i.e.,

Figure 1.1: Sensor

the size of a sugar lump. All sides of the "sugar lump" are coveredwith a multi-layered micro-battery, interlinked with a thin film solarcell, and concatenated with a patch antenna. Strips along the 12 edgesare coated with specific receptors, for example, for electronic nose op-eration, and for virus, drug, and explosive detection, see Figure 1.13. Itis exposed to the hostile world of wireless communication and attacksfrom the Internet as well as a demanding physical environment (liq-uids, acids, extreme temperatures, vibrations). Furthermore, it is onesensor in a system of thousands of nodes making self-organizing capabilities a necessity. At last,it should be operational for many years without maintenance and be ecologically decomposableafter its life-time. Still, it should cost less than 1 Euro.

All these desired and often mutually exclusive characteristics are coupled with each other toa certain degree, and therefore, to be fully successful, sensor network research must be multi-disciplinary. Research in one discipline solely is running a high risk of being sub-optimal. We,therefore, propose such a multidisciplinary program.

The Center will address the full spectrum of research issues with a special emphasis onenergy management since the lifetime of a sensor network depends heavily on battery capacity,energy consumption and the ability to generate electrical energy from the environment. All partsof a sensor must cooperate to minimize energy consumption, which involves all disciplines.Other major research issues include very small antennas, sensors that consumes less energy andwith higher resolution than exists today, and security when sensor networks are attached to the

3The illustration is from the EU project e-CUBES.


Internet. We envision that wireless sensor networks need to possess self-organizing capabilitiesin order to organize themselves for their common monitoring application and to the propertiesof their launched environment.

1.2.2 State-of-the-art

The state-of-the-art of WSNs has recently been presented in detail in three major scientific jour-nals (Communications of the ACM, (June 2004), IEEE Computer Magazine, (August 2004),IEEE Wireless Communication, Dec 2004). See also the handbook on sensor networks (Ilyas)for a comprehensive review of the field. Standards such as IEEE 802.15.4 and ZigBee haveemerged and gained press coverage. Even if ZigBee will provide interoperability and in thisway push the field, it is far from being able to provide optimal solutions for all applications dueto its inflexibility that prevents necessary cross-layer optimizations required for true energy-efficiency [2]. In fact, the developers of the emerging SP standard that aims at providing aunifying link abstraction anticipate that an architecture "built on static technologies is destinedfor obsolescence" [3].

One of the major issues in WSN research is energy management which aims at fulfillingapplication requirements without running out of power. In general, this involves maximizingthe lifetime of a collection of sensor nodes. Clearly, the development of energy efficient devicecomponents will continue to play an absolutely essential role in reducing power consumptionin the sensing and computing domain, as will the development of more efficient batteries, lowpower sensors, microprocessors and communication hardware including antennas. One methodto improve sensor lifetime is to complement battery supply with environmental energy [4]. Har-vesting techniques on current platforms are mainly restricted towards photovoltaic systems [5]currently not exploiting the potential of e.g. thermopile and piezoelectric generators.

So far, WSN research has been driven by researchers from the networking community andthe lack of collaborative research efforts across the fields is exemplified by the fact that very littlehas been done to optimize the radios and in particular antennas. For example, the potential ofcooperative MIMO techniques which are more efficient than SISO systems [6] is not exploitedyet. The problem of managing complex cross-layer interactions is common to most aspectsof sensor networks. In some areas, especially the operating systems and communication aresthere is a need to go from a collection of suboptimal individual optimizations for each area to amore conceptual view covering both areas. This requires a robust architectural framework thatmanages the complexity of area interactions in a structured way and provides a strong basis forfuture research and development. The immaturity of this area, despite recent proposals such asSP [3], and the importance of this issue, was recently highlighted by Guru Parulkar of NSF [7].

WSNs must be secured against malicious attacks, in particular when they are connected tothe Internet. In this context, resilience to malicious activity targeted to drain batteries is of majorimportance, an emerging research area which is starting to receive attention [8].

With respect to sensors the only transducer type with high resolution and which lends it-self to miniaturization is the piezoelectric resonator type such as quartz crystal microbalance(QCM). However, it suffers from insufficient sensitivity and large dimensions in addition tohigh cost. A significant progress has been made in recent years to develop thin piezoelectricfilms and subsequently miniature resonators with an extreme sensitivity. Uppsala University isat the forefront of this development by devising a unique synthesis process for the deposition oftextured AlN thin films for the fabrication of both physical and chemical as well as biochemicalsensors [9].

This approach will allow us to design and fabricate a whole range of low cost sensors withextreme resolution, sub-millimeter dimensions with a technology fully compatible with IC fab-


rication.

1.2.3 Research Issues and Workpackage Descriptions

The overall research issues within WSNs can be

Sensors and Microsystems

NetworkingWireless

Communication

Figure 1.2: Competence areas

grouped in different ways. For our purpose we clas-sify them into: (1) the wireless sensor network plat-form, (2) data mining and fusion of sensor data aswell as, (3) application issues. The focus of ourprogram is on the WSN platform (1) and on (3)applications issues, the latter primarily driven byour industry/public organization partners. We areare also well prepared to also handle (2) since Up-psala University has other research activities ongo-ing on data fusion in general at both the departmentof Technology and the Information technology de-partment. Other complementing research activitiesat the university include solar cell and battery re-search. Our competence areas for platform research are illustrated in Figure 1.2.

The strategic position of the proposed research program is within the dashed circle. Asthe figure intends to illustrate, the cross-sections represent multidisciplinary issues that we willaddress. The cross-section between the dashed line and each individual area represents wire-less sensor issues within each discipline that are necessary for platform research. For example,energy management involves all three disciplines, coding and modulation of wireless trans-missions is in the cross section between Networking and Wireless Communication, whereasbiochemical sensors are solely within the Sensors and Microsystems area.

Our planned research activities reflect these multidisciplinary issues in the form of workpackages. This means that work packages are our primary means for collaboration. Such apackage has one leader responsible for its execution and has common goals and deliverables.Projects are defined within work packages. We anticipate that the WP research issues willprevail during the whole period while specific projects within a WP may change over time.Some of the issues within a WP are multidisciplinary whereas others are typically consideredby single groups, bearing in mind a holistic approach.

The work packages with their major issues are:

• WP1: Energy Management and Power Scavenging:System and node level optimiza-tion of energy consumption, including resource allocation, wireless transmission androuting schemes. Energy harvesting,

• WP2: Systems Integration and Node Architecture: Sensor design and fabrication,integration of RF front end with sensor, CPU and memory, operating system, and pro-gramming APIs,

• WP3: Wireless Communication, Networking and Security: Networking and self-configuration, security, transmission schemes, diversity combining, and reconstructionof sensor data,

• WP4: Evaluation Platform: Demonstrations of applications, reliability, robustness andfault tolerance. view.


• WP5: Applications Application specific research issues in Transportation, Automation,Health Care, and Air quality monitoring

WPs 1-3 are dealing with more long term issues. There is an tight interaction betweenthese WPs, since the WP1 sets the constraints on energy scheduling and harvesting possibilitieswhile WP2 and WP3 need to propagate to WP1 knowledge on how energy is consumed, e.g.how often, the duration and at what power. Application behavior knowledge from WP5 willset the overall energy scenario. The major objective with WP4 is to coordinate and unify theresearch activities in the center as a whole by setting up an evaluation platform to be used by allpartners. In WP5 many of the industry partners specific projects will be defined. This does notmean that industry will work solely in this package, on the contrary, they will also participatein the other packages. This also applies for the academic partners, for example, all partnersparticipate in WP1 and at least three of the partners participate in WP2 and WP3.

It should be noted that all academic partners have an experimental approach to research andwork with prototypes (software as well as hardware) as their main mean to produce results.Therefor, WP4 is important since the results from WP1-3 will eventually be demonstrated onour test-bed. Such tangible results are easier to commercialize for industry than theoreticalresults, as our previous history has shown. The industry research in WP5 will preferably usethe test-bed for pre-competitive evaluation of applications and new prototypes.

WP1: Energy Management and Power Scavenging

Energy management is perhaps the most critical issue for WSN since the lifetime dependsheavily on battery capacity, energy consumption, and the ability to harvest energy from theenvironment (energy scavenging). The objective of this WP is to optimize the whole systemfunctionality under hard energy consumption constraints. This is a truly multidisciplinary WPin which we will develop novel schemes for resource allocation, both globally and locally,transmission and routing of data, sensor selection, and fusion of data. This is discussed in moredetail next.

Wireless sensors need electrical power and there are three ways to provide it: wirelessdistribution, stored energy (e.g. batteries), and energy scavenging from the environment [10].An important objective with WP1 is to study how we will harvest energy from the environmentand store it in rechargeable batteries. A considerable part of our efforts onenergy scavengingwill be to design and develop thermopile and piezoelectric generators. The thermopile generatorwill be based on our patented technology for a thin film via interconnects thermopile circuit,directly linked to our work in the EU project IP "e-CUBES". The research on piezoelectricgenerators and multi chip modules will also involve the recent research in the EU project "I-SWORM", where dry polymer piezo-actuator technology and multi-chip-module technology isused for autonomous wireless micro robots of total sizes below 4 mm3.

Energyconsumptioncan be divided into three domains, sensing, communication, and dataprocessing. Energy, bandwidth allocation, transmission power and processing capacity are thusfundamental resources that have to be allocated among nodes, in an optimal way. The commu-nication system is usually the most energy consuming part of a sensor system. There is also aclear trade-off between transmission and computation. For example, existing sensors use aboutten times more energy to transmit one bit than to execute one instruction. This implies localprocessing to reduce the transmission.

Sensors typically use more energy for receiving than transmission since the receiving logicmust listen all times for frames destined to that sensor while the transmitter logic only needs tobe activated when there is data to be send. The dominating part of transmission is not the actual


RF energy transmitted but the signal processing and communication electronics. Therefore re-ceivers and transmitters should be scheduled to operate only when needed and should otherwisebe turned off [11].

This schedule is very complicated and depends on the application, traffic patterns, thecurrent configuration (active sensors, their location and routing paths), interferences betweennodes, energy at hand at each sensor, possible local processing and opportunities for energyharvesting. Furthermore, it is complicated by the fact that sensors malfunction and are exposedto external disturbances. Scheduling approaches in the area try to find local schedules that moreor less harmonize with global schedules. Such local schemes are often considered in MAC pro-tocols, i.e. how to divide the media between sensors under energy constraints. Global schemes,for example, are used for multi-hop routing over nodes. The WSN community has been study-ing such routing principals under many years under different constraints and assumptions [12].Finally, a deciding factor a network scheduler is information about which sensor would be mostsuitable to use for a certain task. Such information can be conveyed by the use of e.g. diffu-sion [13].

Scheduling of network resources are performed in the MAC layer. It is an important, butalso very complicated, optimization problem in which many constraints are involved; see e.g.the article by Goldsmith and Wicker on design challenges for energy-constrained ad hoc wire-les networks [14] and chapter 28 of the Handbook of Sensor Networks [15]. These schedulesrequire re-optimization whenever new information becomes available, and they have to be ro-bust to sensor malfunctioning and large variations in the data influx. Here we will build on ourprevious experience in adaptive and robust filtering [16, 17]. If delay is an issue, transmissionmay have to be made when channel conditions are poor. Thus efficient adaptive modulation andcoding schemes must be employed.

Transmitting data is very costly and should be carefully planned so it will harmonize with fa-vorable channel conditions [18]. Since silent listening is not for free sensors should be switchedoff as often as possible and wake up only when needed [11]. In the extreme case only a clockshould run towards a scheduled wake-up time. Distributed scheduling of power saving timeswill be an important issue, requiring synchronized clocks. Both detection delays and energyconsumption should be minimized. On a network level the efficiency of scheduling algorithmswill depend on how well the channels among the nodes can be estimated or predicted and howefficiently this information can be distributed among active nodes. In order to obtain realizablesolutions cross-layer interaction need to be considered [14,19].

Expected results

• Novel algorithms for local and global energy management with capability to accommo-date joint optimization.

• An energy optimization toolbox with which different strategies for optimizing energyconsumption, energy storage, and production in a sensor network can be evaluated.

• The development of a hybrid integrated sub-1-cm3 photovoltaic and energy storage (minia-ture rechargeable battery) system on a 3D printed circuit board. Later, other energy scav-enging systems will use the same energy storage system.

• Demonstration of a thin-film 4 V thermoelectric generator.

WP2: System Integration and Node Architecture

The main objective of this WP is to develop the complete architecture of a WSN node in a crosslayer design fashion, ranging from the sensors themselves, fabrication and assembly process,


integration of antennas, radio architectures through

Figure 1.3: Sensor node layers

to the operating system and software controllingthe node. This integration process will use com-mercially available CPUs and memories. This im-plies that each component, or layer, should havesufficient information about the other componentsand the overall system to be able to cooperate ef-ficiently and to utilize the full potential of the sys-tem. In practice it could, e.g. mean that the sensorapplication is aware of the MAC and the physicallayer characteristics: varying channel conditions would result in different coding and modula-tion formats, as well as different resource allocations, and it would be efficient if the applicationadjusts its requirements to what is physically realizable. See Figure 1.3 for a schematic view ofthe layers involved and research topics of a future sensor node.

Integration of the RF front end with sensor and antennas The integration of the RF front-end with the sensor and the antenna for different applications needs very high density, low costunifying heterogeneous technologies, e.g. using e.g. Multi-chip Modules (MCM)including 3-dimensional vertical integration. Novel technologies with high efficiency 3D integration of theantenna, directional antennas, and a reconfigurable radio frequency (RF) front-end, are promis-ing development paths. Integration of wireless communication interfaces, antennae, power pro-vision, and new functionalities into a very small volume or area is a key issue in this context, seeFig. 2. By integrating the Monolithic Microwave Integrated Circuit (MMIC) with the antenna inlow antenna gain applications, advantages such as simplified packaging and considerable reduc-tion of the space required by the radio front-end, can also be achieved for low-cost applications.State of the art monolithic antenna integrated vector modulated RF-circuits for sensor applica-tions at ISM 24GHz has been developed [20, 21]. Similar technology can together with a lowcost integration platform, e.g. flex-foil, be used for integration up to millimeterwave frequen-cies [22]. Radio architecture has also to be designed in view of cross-disciplinary issues, exam-ples of which are e.g. link budget, modulation and coding formats, space- time processing andselection of radio interface. By example sensors may be located in environments prone to multi-path and fading. As the geometry of the environment is not pre-determined spatio-directionaltechniques such as directional transmission and reception also need to be considered.

Sensor design and fabrication Sensors have to satisfy a wide range of often mutually ex-clusive requirements such as extreme sensitivity and stability, selectivity, robustness, reliability,drift, low cost, small dimensions, low energy consumption, etc. as well as withstand large vari-ations of the elements and operation in harsh environments. Specifically, a range of miniaturephysical (pressure, temperature, etc), chemical and biochemical sensors will be developed inclose collaboration with our industrial partners. Uppsala University is a world leader in thedevelopment of high performance electroacoustic sensors [9,23], both in terms of development,sensor design and fabrication. The sensor design will be mainly based on thin film electroa-coustic resonant and delay line structure. The technology developed is fully compatible withIC fabrication which paves the way for integrating the sensors with the rest of the electroniccircuitry.

Programming environment and operating systems Programming environment and operat-ing systems: Sensor node require not only hardware, except perhaps for the extremely simple


ones but also software in terms of operating system, communication protocols, data manage-ment middleware as well as development and simulation tools. The challenges and researchissues are largely resulting from the resource-constrained environment with small memory foot-print and limited energy budget. There is a constant trade-off between available resources andthe features and functions that can be supported. TinyOS [24] features an event driven pro-gramming model and a component model that allows the designer to include the functionalityrequired by the particular application. Our Contiki [25] OS is similar but adds multithreadingand dynamically loadable modules. Contiki also includes uIP, the world’s smallest full TCP/IPstack [26] and protothreads, extremely lightweight, stack-less thread-like constructs that pro-vide linear execution on top of Contiki’s event-driven kernel. Considering Contiki’s propertieswe will build on this software to, among other things, make it energy aware.

Expected Results

• Find low cost disruptive antenna integrated RF front-end technology, circuit design andarchitecture.

• Miniature sensors with typical dimensions 100µm×100µm and a mass resolution betterthan 100 pg/cm2.

• Further improvement of the Contiki OS in particular with respect to energy-awarenessand utilization of the new RF front end and sensors.

WP3: Wireless Communication, Networking, and Security

This Work Package deals with wireless communication, how sensors are networked and howthe network is attached to the Internet. We take a holistic view on this, recognizing that the com-munication is much more intimately coupled with networking in sensor networks than in othernetworks. The research issue ranges from adaptive modulation to routing, self-configuration,security and the gateway to the Internet.

Wireless Communication: Issues like multi-path, scattering, shadowing, and fast fading willall affect the communication capabilities. In some applications optimizing energy consump-tion is more critical than optimizing throughput and delay. Thus we will consider optimizationproblems for communication among sensors where energy consumption is either a main objec-tive, or a constraint. From the literature we know that MIMO- and MISO-transmissions, seee.g. [27], [28] and [29], use less energy to obtain a certain bit error rate compared with SISOtransmission. However, the physical dimension of sensors is, in general, far too small to allowfor multiple antennas. (In WP 2 we will investigate to what extent multi antenna technologycan be integrated on a single chip and used for WSNs.) An alternative would then be to usenearby nodes for cooperative transmission. By using Alamouti coding [30], Cui et al [29] haveshown that considerable energy and delay savings can be obtained over short distances, if alsothe symbol constellation is optimized. In other words, it is advantageous to use the required ad-ditional energy to communicate with neighboring nodes to allow for cooperative transmission,since higher capacity can then be obtained.

We investigate cooperative transmission under hard global and local energy constraints andwith limited channel state information. We consider the model of Cui et. al. [29] based onAlamouti codes [30] and further optimize its energy efficiency. In this area we build on our pre-vious expertise in long range channel prediction [31] and quantized channel state feedback [32]


to apply low complexity channel predictors and estimators. A special focus is on the robust-ness of such algorithms, as both unreliable and malfunctioning sensors may exist. Furthermore,since transmission techniques are issues for the physical layer whereas scheduling of resourcesis a MAC layer issue cross layer interaction is crucial. In this area we will build on our expertisein developing 4G communication systems both within the Swedish Wireless IP project and theEuropean FP6 program WINNER. As an example see the work by Sternad and co-workers ine.g. [33].

Networking: Wireless sensor nodes have to operate unattended in possibly dynamic and di-verse environments; exposed to the elements, dealing with noise and interference, uncertainty,and asynchrony of the real world. Manual configuration is often impossible and does not scale.Therefore the individual components and their interaction need to be largely adaptive, reliable,and robust. Self-configuration for energy constrained environments has to rely on adaptiveand localized algorithms that do not require global interaction or information, and on locallyco-ordinated deduction of configuration parameters. Issues to be addressed are localization,self-organization, topology discovery, service detection, and scheduling of resources.

We investigate the self-configuration of network resources and their interaction with theInternet. Issues to be addressed to achieve self-configuring networks are localization, topologydiscover, self-organization, service detection, and scheduling of resources. Our research onoverlay and ad hoc routing technologies [34] is our starting point.

Integration into the Internet is approached with two complementing approaches, gatewayingand stretching the usability of TCP/IP in sensor networks as far as possible. In this area webuild on our expertise in gateway technology for ad hoc networks [35], and light weight TCP/IPimplementations [26].

Security: Security for sensor networks is complex. Limited computing and energy resourcesconstrain the design space, while sensors are exposed to an open and unknown environment.Local as well as distributed attacks are easy to perform. Availability and internal attacks (i.e.compromised nodes) that are of concern. Battery drain, for example, is a new form of attackthat sensor nodes are exposed to. Misbehavior detection and node revocation, see e.g. [36],as well as code attestation are approaches to make sensor networks more resilient and robustagainst malicious activity. Security bootstrapping supports the establishment of secure trustedcommunities or groups of collaborating sensor nodes. Secure distance bounding [37,38] is oneof the key issues for that purpose.

Resilient secure communication infrastructures for sensor nodes finally address the mostimportant security threats. We will base the work on previous experience with security boot-strapping for building secure collaborative communities [39], the work on self-configuring net-works, and delegation of expensive operations to more powerful nodes. Our current work inthe area investigates to what extent sensor data can be used as a source for randomness. Weenvision extending the idea to use sensor information also for distance bounding and detectionof physical attacks.

Expected results The types of results we expect from this research are:

• Fully working gateways, with address virtualization, secure proxies for sensors, autho-rizations principles, MAC-protocols that are adaptive to the environment, internal/externalrouting strategies.

• Self-configuring protocols for major parts of the system, especially security


• Novel cooperative transmission schemes based on quantized channel state feedback in-formation,

• Energy efficient channel predictors- and estimators,• Reliable reconstruction schemes which are able to cope with missing data.

WP4: Evaluation Platform

Research in sensor networking cannot be performed using analysis or simulation solely sincethese methods only capture parts of the reality. Only practical experiments can give detailedinsights about the reality of energy constraints, resource allocation, communication, and radioconditions.

The objective of this work package is to build an evaluation platform. There are threemajor goals. (1) The platform is an environment which will unify the different projects ontoone platform. (2) It enables us to experimentally evaluate our solutions, in particular withrespect to energy-efficiency at various levels (system, communication protocols). (3) Further,the evaluation platform will provide the ability to demonstrate our technical solutions, thuseasing technology transfer and providing increased visibility of the center as a whole.

In contrast to other time and money consuming test bed developments we here intend tomake use of existing technologies. SICS has already developed a sensor node platform includ-ing the Contiki operating system. We will build on this technology, possibly complementedwith commercial products. The evaluation platform will be developed gradually to incorporateour new as well as externally obtained results. The intention is to always have a stable platformavailable for external demonstrations and for student experiments.

Existing test-beds In recent years, the sensor networking community has recognized the im-portance of real-world applications and test-beds. The most prominent testbeds are EmTOS [40]and Motelab [41]. There is also a commercially available WSN platform supplied by Crossbow.Using EmTOS, TinyOS applications can be run on Linux-based platforms for sensor networkdevelopment and deployment. Motelab is a test-bed that consists of sensor nodes. A centralnode is responsible for reprogramming and data logging. Motelab also provides services to re-mote users. Remote users are given the opportunity to develop and schedule experiments usinga web-based interface.

While these test-beds are extremely useful, they are not sufficient with respect to one of themain important aspects of sensor networking, namely energy-efficiency. Motelab, for example,allows monitoring the energy usage of one single node. So far, there is a clear lack of experimen-tal evaluation of the energy-efficiency in the area, in particular regarding the energy-efficiencyof communication protocols. One of the reasons is the long lifetime of batteries, which makeexperimental comparisons of different protocols time-consuming. SICS has in cooperation withFU Berlin come up with the idea of using special capacitors with very large capacity, so-calledGoldCaps, as a battery replacement for such experiments [42]. This approach enables short-time experiments with duration not exceeding a few hours. Furthermore, it is straightforward toevaluate the impact of energy scavenging as experiments with solar cells and GoldCaps at FUBerlin have shown.

Our proposed evaluation platform We plan to develop a platform that includes certain im-portant features found in Motelab, e.g., remote access, as well as the GoldCap approach. The


GoldCap approach needs to be extended to enable the realization of series of experiments with-out manual intervention, by switching between different power sources using radio communi-cation. An important part of our platform activities is to experimentally validate the energyscavenging, self-configuration, communication, resource allocation, and fault tolerance and ro-bustness characteristics.

One of the drawbacks of the GoldCap approach is that it does not capture all properties ofother energy storage devices. For example, using GoldCaps it is not possible to consider the re-laxation effect of batteries. This effect enables batteries to recover a portion of their lost capacitywhen the discharge current is cut-off or reduced. This is one of the reasons why an evaluationplatform should include an additional simulation environment. The Contiki operating systemdeveloped at SICS contains a network simulator. Code from the simulator can be downloadeddirectly on sensor nodes without modification, which facilitates rapid prototyping. One of thegoals of this work package is to introduce energy-awareness into the Contiki network simulatorby monitoring the energy consumption of the simulated sensor nodes. The energy consumptioninput data can be gathered both from the literature but more importantly by technical equipmentsuch as oscilloscopes that will be part of the evaluation platform.

Expected results

• Sensor node platform suited for experimental evaluation of results from WPs 1-3.• Contiki simulator with energy consumption monitoring• Demonstrations of results from the center at various center activities

WP5: Applications

The purpose of this workpackage is to provide application knowledge in the form of require-ments and other characteristics which is needed for the research in workpackages 1-3. Thepurpose is also to use the test-bed from workpackage 4 to develop application specific proto-types in close collaboration with the center partners. The testing and evaluation of these proto-types will provide additional feedback to the practical usability and relevance of the research inworkpackages 1-3.

Projects in this workpackage are typically lead by a center partner: a company or govern-ment agency. When possible, the projects involve several partners, but projects with only onepartner in collaboration with Uppsala University and SICS are also forseen. We will take ad-vantage of the possibility to formTriple Helix constellations within the same project, since wehave the needed mixture of partners in the center.

Road, traffic and transportation information systems Sensor networks gathering data inreal-time is an ideal complement to already existing information system applications. Sensornetworks can provide higher resolution data from the environment both in time and space. Road,traffic and transportation information systems are of this kind. The objectives with these systemsinclude providing improved safety, better maintenance and optimised operations. The centerwill work together with its partners with three variants of this kind of system:

• Information systems for roads and traffic, which processes information about traffic inten-sity, congestion, weather condition and road wear. The information is then made availableto the road maintainer as well as to drivers in order to optimise maintenance and improveroad safety.


• Vehicle detection and identification systems, which can be part of the just mentioned roadinformation systems but also military applications, where there is a desire to detect thenumber and exact type of the vehicles in a certain area.

• Railroad operations and maintenance systems, which processes information about rail-road tracks and train movements. There are interesting problems arising from that thetrack is operated by one organisation and the trains are operated by several different com-panies in a competitive market.

Characteristics common to these systems are large scale, the need for geographic coverage,robustness, accuracy and impact on safety.

Reliable monitoring and control Information systems are integral parts of modern manufac-turing, ranging from large-scale steel and pulp plants to small chemical factories in the biotech-nology area. Sensors already provide data to these systems, but there is an increasing needfor more detailed data and the problem with wires in complex machinery. There are two mainobjectives. The first is to improve the quality of the resulting product, which requires precisecontrol over the manufacturing process. The second is to monitor the manufacturing equipmentto be able to perform service before something breaks which can have severe consequences.

Characteristics of these systems are need for robustness, accuracy, fault tolerance and wire-less communication.

Health care There are many sensor and sensor network applications in health care which arein need of small and accurate sensing devices. Many applications also need wireless commu-nication. The center will work together with its partners in two complementary applicationareas:

• Home health care and social care, which encompasses support for disabled and elderlypeople in their homes by collecting and transferring vital health parameters to the healthcare provider.

• Sensor technology for accurate diagnosis, which can be swallowed, injected or otherwiseinserted into the human body.

Characteristics of these systems are need for accuracy, reliability and wireless communication.

Environmental monitoring Environmental monitoring emphasise many research issues car-ried out within the center. Potentially large number of sensors covering large geographical areasare needed for many applications. Support from infrastructure is often not available.

These sensor networks will be used for homeland security, monitoring of environmentalhazards, and for supporting forestry and agriculture business. These sensing networks willperform sophisticated analysis at the sensor node and convey measurement data and alarmsup the command chain. Sensor networks of this type are expected to revolutionise the abilityto detect and locate biological, chemical, or explosive threats. The ability to distribute largenumbers of low-cost sensors over large areas enables these devices to be close to the targetedthreats and therefore improve detection efficiencies and enable rapid counter responses. Forforestry and agriculture, these sensor networks can provide measurement data of such detail,both in time and area, which enable optimal use of fertilisers and pesticides.

Characteristics common to these systems are large scale, autonomous operation, need forgeographic coverage and robustness.


Expected results

• Provision of requirements and characteristics from real applications to workpackages 1-3.• Prototype sensor network systems for specific application scenarios.

1.3 Renewal potential

1.3.1 Potential for sustained growth

How WSNs in general contribute to sustained growth is commented on in section 1 of thisenclosure. Here we will discuss the impact on sustained growth areas from the anticipatedCenter results. This section can only highlight some of the results and obviously, we can onlydo qualified speculations.

Economic growth: The Center is expected to generate growth both by creating results thatcould be the base for starting new companies as well as knowledge and know how that will beutilized by partner industries and agencies. In terms of new products we anticipate (and partlyguess) that results on energy harvesting and the ability to operate in harsh environments couldgenerate prototypes which could lead to new products. Such robust and dependable sensors arehighly desired by our industrial partners in their applications. The expected results on securecommunications and self-configuring methods in addition to fault tolerant networks will all alsocontribute to dependable sensor systems that could be running unattained for long times.

Results on high precision sensors that also are energy efficient will allow our biotech com-panies to both increase production yields and better utilize costly resources, thus generatingincreased productivity and growth.

The cost efficient, robust, long lived sensors envisaged to be developed in the center areexpected to be used in various parts of transportation (vehicles, roads, railways, aircrafts) aimingto minimize the fuel use and to provide higher transport safety.

Ecological sustained growth: By sustainable we mean a strife towards an industrial and so-cial activities and development which are not at the expense of our environment and habitat. Ina nutshell the way the center will contribute in this respect is evident from specific applicationsdescribed elsewhere. The common denominator in all these applications is improved efficiencyof the functionality in question. In simple terms this could mean an optimisation of a techno-logical process through better control (think of a biotechnological process), or novel productsleading and services leading to a reduced use of energy and resources (think of efficient traf-fic, optimal production, etc), efficient health care and diognostics (think of novel bioanalyticaltools), etc. In one word, an efficient use of resources through comprehensive monitoring andcontrol as well as through novel resource friendly products and services in a wide range ofsocial and industrial life.

1.3.2 Importance for the university

The WISENET centre is a truly multidisciplinary R&D concept, combining research in a num-ber of the University’s profile areas, namely materials sciences, information technology, biotech-nology, welfare and health, energy, etc. As such WISENET fits perfectly well into the strategicpriorities and the long term research plans of the University by performing focused, structured


and application oriented research in all of the above priority areas with a potentially signifi-cant impact for Swedish industry, higher education and society as a whole. The strength ofthe approach is that the Center integrates the efforts of a large number of scientists and indus-trial partners of diverse expertise and know how, bringing about strong synergism and efficientuse of resources. This represents a substantial departure from traditional funding schemes ofsupporting specific and often uncoordinated projects of sporadic relevance for Swedish indus-try. This is further closely related to the long term ambitions of the University to providehigh quality education in the above priority areas. Specifically, the proposed research in mi-crosystems, novel functional materials, nanosensorics, energy scavenging, distributed systems,reliable and intelligent networking, embedded systems, efficient communication, etc are all ar-eas of significant importance for the research and educational profile of the University. Equallyimportantly, WISENET will be a complementary strong research environment to other similarcenters planned.

Finally, a VinnEx center will provide opportunities for other disciplines to benefit early fromthis development. Close to the center activities are the research areas on batteries, solar cellsand data fusion. Other application examples include, ecological botany, limnology, geosciences,physics, as well as the Agricultural University which will benefit from sensor networks. TheAcademic Hospital of Uppsala provides opportunities for the Center within health care whilethe Bio Medical Centre opportunities for biological sensors.

1.3.3 Relevance for the industry/public organizations

The specific relevance for each industrial/public organization is described in their respectivelyLetter of Intent as well as in the section on Description of actors. We will here summarize theirrelevance and use a somehow ad hoc grouping of companies for a better overview. The pro-cess and automation oriented industries (ABB, TNT, Hectronic) are interested in the activitieson robust sensor systems which should work in harsh environments and the activities on en-ergy management. The vehicle/transportation oriented partners (Swedish Road Administration,Swedish Railway Authorities, TRIONA, FOI, Ericsson) emphasize security, self-organization,cost, weather resistance, longevity and access(gateway) via a backbone network (Internet) toa control center. In the areas of health, biotechnology and environment SenseAir, AcademicHospital, BioSensor Applications, Biotage and Radi Medical System are interested in varioushigh performance sensors (pressure, temperature, chemical and biochemical).

1.3.4 Relation to international centers and quality

According to our judgements, this constellation has the potential and the ambition to becomeone of the strongest in the field of Wireless Sensor Networks in the world and particularly onenergy management. All partners have high international visibility, participate in many EU pro-grams and have personal contacts with established WSN centers around the world (Berkeley,UCLA, EPFL Lausanne, UMASS, Georgia Tech et al). We have observed that the most suc-cessful of them (e.g. UCLA CENS) have the same multidisciplinary approach as in this propsaland also have a strong constellation of industrial partners. We intent to visit the centers in theinitial stages of launching our center for exchange of ideas and experience. In Europe there arerelative a few centers and none that has the multidisciplinary breadth of WISENET. The MICScenter i Switzerland comes closest but is lacking the microsystem and sensoric parts. On theother hand they have a strong theory aspect.

With respect to international collaboration we recognize that all partners are working in


sensor related EU-projects for our respective discipline. For example partners work in thefollowing projects: e-CUBES, RUNES, WICENT, HAGGLE, FLEXIS, WINNER, AMICOM,E-NEXT, NEWCOM and ALISTORE. The European Commission has launched a number ofSensor Network related programs e.g. INOS and SENSATION and a EU Joint Research Centerin the area of sensors networks, with a total funding is around 13 million euro. We expect thatour Center will have a leading role in forthcoming EU programs and close contact with thecenters. It should also be mentioned that the USA NSF annually funds research within the areaof about $34 million dollars and DARPA $390 million current fiscal year.

On the national scene we are all engaged in national programs from Vinnova, VR and SSF.Our total national annual funding is about 25MSEK for all the applicants and also here, a majorpart is sensor network related. We are in contact with and have agreed upon collaboration withthe following sensor related centers in Sweden: (1) the Centre on e-Health, which recentlyhas been jointly launched by Uppsala University and Uppsala County Council and (2) Centrefor Electronic Systems for Sensible Things that Communicate at the Swedish Mid University,financed by the KK-Foundation. This latter center has relevant research to complement ours onsensor electronics.

1.3.5 Gender Issues

We are committed to:

1. Establishing a Gender Action Plan (GAP), and2. Integrating gender-related questions in all developments and research projects (RP).

The GAP will be set up in a ongoing dialogue with Anneli Wennström and other gendercompetent researchers from the center for Gender Research at Uppsala University. The planwill include actions to be completed during the course of the project as well as qualitativeguidelines for addressing gender relevant topics.

The center will be committed to developing products directed towards different age groupswithin the entire European population, without gender prejudice. We will also address specificgender topics to overcome gender injustices. Examples include: equal salaries for equal workand equal rights to promotion. To achieve this goal, every research project has to address theseissues explicitly. The RP leaders will be required to report annually to the Director on to whatextent the GAP has been followed and also identifying different user needs and requirementsbased on gender. When required the Director will revise the GAP accordingly.

The key issue is to address gender systematically in every part of our work, also with respectto end user requirements. The following list illustrates how gender issues, in terms of userrequirements, can be integrated into the RPs:

1. Selection of target groups, e.g. women working part-time, girls between 15 and 18, andelderly women.

2. Analysis of discrepancies between men and women, i.e., multimodal interaction patterns.3. Impact analysis, especially to target gender differences as measured by criteria reflecting

usefulness, acceptance, market relevance, services, and user interfaces.4. Criteria for scenario selection, gender requirements, and needs.

In the light of the above discussion, we have identified a number of important gender topics,e.g., life-work balance, care of the elderly, coordination support, children, health (special sup-port to men can be kept in mind), nutrition, personal security, e.g., a safe walk home at night.We will also consider gender issues in developing market strategies.

These plans will be


1.4 Actors from research, business sector and public services

1.4.1 Description of external academic, industrial and public partners

In addition to the core academic partners, the Center includes a broad range of partners outsideUppsala University. These include large multinational corporations, companies and SMEs, aswell as public organisations which have been carefully selected according to the criteria: rele-vance to the main objectives, expertise, knowledge of existing and emerging markets, marketstrategies, industry roadmaps, commitment and long- term interest in the Center, relevance ofthe expected results to core industrial acitivity, impact on Swedish industry, increasing compet-itiveness and productivity, etc. These partners have expressed their interest and commitment inwritten statements. Their role will be instrumental in running the Center as a whole, particularlyin defining the overall roadmap, strategies, milestones, goals and identifying specific projects ofa more applied character. Their direct participation will start from day one through concrete bi-or multilateral collaborative projects. The ultimate success of the Center will be judged by therelevance and significance of the scientific results achieved for Swedish and European industry- and not least by the number of start-ups which result from the programme. We present hereina brief description of our industrial partners including their main interest in the Center.

ABB: is a global leader in power and automation technologies which enables utility companycustomers to improve their performance while lowering the environmental impact. TheABB Group of companies operates in around 100 countries and today employs 102 000people. ABB has two core businesses: Power and Automation Technologies. Interest:In the area of automation technologies; more specifically in monitoring, characterizationand optimization of complete technological processes using WSN.

Biosensor Applicatons AB: Biosensor Applicatons AB is a high-tech R&D company in thefield of gas and liquid sensing. Their BIOSENS technology is world-leading. Over theyears, substantial investments have been made to develop their trace-detection sensor, aneffective air collection system. The most recent development is a non-intrusive narcoticdetection device for human testing. These combined technologies meet a global demandfor efficient equipment for the detection of narcotics and explosives. Interest: Novelhigh-sensitivity gas and biochemical sensor systems with low fabrication cost and smalldimensions.

Biotage AB: Biotage AB is a global company providing innovative solutions, knowledge andexperience in the areas of medicinal and analytical chemistry, process development andgenetic analysis. Its strengths include revolutionary high-quality technologies, a broadbusiness base and a 23 long-term view of the market. Biotage aims to help its globalcustomers meet the enormous pressures of time, cost and innovation. Interest: Biotage’sinterest in the Center is manifold. The company is relocating its R&D activities fromUSA and England to a central R&D department in Uppsala, and are planning to workclosely with Uppsala University and in particular with the proposed Center. Of specialinterest is the development of novel biotechnological prolshortcesses using alternativemicrowave heat sources to substantially reduce synthesis time. Equally important is thedevelopment of a wide range of novel multifunctional sensors for process developmentand control, incl. temperature, pressure, flow, turbulence and, above all, high-sensitivitybiosensors.


Ericsson: Ericsson is a world-leading global provider of telecommunications equipment andrelated services to mobile and fixed network operators. Over 1000 networks in 140 coun-tries utilize their network equipment and 40 % of all mobile calls are made through Er-icsson systems. The company is one of the few worldwide that can offer end-to-endsolutions for all major mobile communication standards. Interest: Sensor networking andmachine-to-machine communication

Hectronic AB: Founded in 1989, Hectronic is today one of Sweden’s leading Embedded PCdevelopment and manufacturing companies. Their advanced embedded solution expertisefacilitates the development and manufacture of the technology needed to support existingand future ICT-based products and solutions. Interest: Low-power sensors and micro-scale WSN.

Hök Instrument AB: Hök Instrument AB acts in development, manufacturing, and marketingand sales of sensor systems. One of its dominating business areas is the Q-air family,sensor systems for indoor air quality control, a product available since 1998. In a newgeneration of products WSN will be implemented. Hök Instrument has a long experiencein collaboration with research groups, both national and in EU projects. Interest: HökInstrument AB has a particular interest in low energy consumption issues and it conductsresearch in energy scavenging.

Radi Medical Systems AB: Radi Medical Systems AB was founded in 1988 and has since de-veloped rapidly within the field of medical device technology. They develop, manufactureand market their own medical devices in the field of interventional cardiology. Businessactivities are within two key areas: Intravascular Sensors (pressure measurement) andHemostasis Management (products to stop bleeding after interventional procedures). In-terest: The development of miniature pressure and temperature sensors in conjunctionwith seamless wireless signal processing.

Regal Components AB: Regal Components AB is a Swedish company with an extensive net-work of international customers and co-operating partners. The company was establishedin 1992 but has with its products and personnel a history from 1982. The office is lo-cated in Uppsala, where also development, production, stock and sales are located. Ourcompany originates from and has developed in a climate of increasing need for new appli-cations of position sensors. Interest: wireless position sensors for use in agricultural andforest machinery, sawmills, medical equipment as well as in the automobile and marineindustry.

SenseAir AB: SenseAir AB is a development and production company within the gas analysisbusiness. They use their high-level technical competence to find unique, cost-efficient so-lutions involving gas sensors and instruments. Interest: Sensor power generation; infrareddetectors.

Swedish Defence Material Administration (FMV): FMV’s mandate is to strengthen the op-erational capability of the Swedish Total Defence system by conducting cost-effectiveprocurement. This includes identifying cost-effective solutions which assure the devel-opment of The Swedish Total Defence with regard to both technology and equipment.These must meet the new equipment needs of the Swedish Armed Forces. Interest: Sen-sor design and fabrication; and intelligent sensor networks.


Swedish Defence Research Agency (FOI):FOI’s core activities are research, methodologyand technology development for defence purposes. The organization employs around1350 people, of whom around 950 are researchers. This makes FOI the largest researchinstitute in Sweden. FOI provides expertise in many fields: security policy studies, anal-ysis of defence and security issues, threats assessment, crisis control and management,safe handling of hazardous substances, IT security and the potential use of new sensors.Interest: Defence applications, especially sensorics and WSN, with a special focus ondistributed data fusion, network security, scheduling of network resources, efficiency ofcoding and modulation schemes, and wireless communication.

Swedish Railroad Administration (Banverket): Banverket is the authority responsible for railtraffic in Sweden. They oversee development in the railway sector, assist the Governmenton railway issues, operation and manage ostate-track installations, coordinate local, re-gional and inter-regional railway services, support research and development in the railsector. Interest: Banverket ensures safe, punctual, fast and fairly-priced rail transport. Anecologically sustainable society presupposes increased rail traffic. WSN will play a keyrole in securing this development.

Swedish Road Administration (Vägverket): Vägverket is the national authority with the over-all sectoral responsibility for the entire road transport system in Sweden. It is also re-sponsible for drawing up and applying road transport regulations, as well as for planning,constructing, operating and maintaining the State roads. This implies a responsibility forissues relating to the environmental impact of the road transport system, road safety, levelof service, efficiency and 22 contributions to regional balance. Interest: ITS-solutions topromote traffic safety, informatics and road maintenance.

TNT-Elektronik AB: TNT-Elektronik AB was founded in 1960 and has been involved in theElectronics and Data Systems market since 1979. It has direct experience in the demandson energy management for WSN and problems in harsh environment. As a small com-pany today it cannot allocate large resources to research but need to keep its position inthe forefront of the technological development. With its new product series RadioPLCit intend to grow within the WSN business segment. Interest: Energy management andminiaturization of sensor nodes.

Triona AB: TRIONA is an IT consultancy company with solid expertise in road and transportinformatics as well as in distributed computer systems. With an annual turnover of around54 MSEK, they have have more than 60 highly experienced employees. Customers in-cude: ABB, Banverket, Lantmäteriet, Statens Vegvesen i Norge, Stora Enso, Stream-Serve, Sveaskog och Vägverket. Interest: Primarily within the same areas as Vägverketand Banverket.

Uppsala University Hospital: Uppsala University Hospital is Sweden’s oldest University hos-pital. Today, the hospital is one of the country’s most complete regional hospitals witharound 40 departments and over 8200 employees. It’s main activities are medical care,teaching and research. Advanced clinical research is performed in close cooperation withUppsala University’s Medical Faculty. The hospital also has an extensive collaborationwith the pharmaceutical industry. Every year more than 100 clinical trials of new drugsare started in the hospital. Cooperation with Uppsala University provides an enlargedfinancial basis for building up advanced technical resources for research, diagnosis andtreatment. Interest: Medical sensor networks.


1.4.2 Future collaboration with other partners

The current proposal represents a long-term research programme and, as such, can be subject tomodification and evolution to keep pace with changes in the World around us. In this sense, thelist of external partners presented above will change with time; new partners will be attractedto the Center, while other can choose to leave the Consortium. Flexibility and adaptability mustbe the key strategy in maintaining a focus of the research programme both in terms of relevanceand level of innovation. Each of the main proposers has developed a broad network of academicand industrial contacts and will fully exploit them in their role in the Center. This can include:participation in national and European projects, bilateral projects and collaboration with leadingpartners from other countries, organizing conferences, seminars, workshops, exchange visits,etc. This is not only important in involving international expertise and know-how in the researchbut is equally important in attracting additional resources to the Center. In short, workingdynamically with external partners is vital to the success of the Center and will be given a highpriority throughout the entire lifetime of the Center.

1.4.3 Budget

VINNOVA: The intended funding from VINNOVA for phase 1 (years 1 and 2) is 7 MSEK(2.5MSEK year 1, and 4.5 MSEK year 2).

Uppsala University and SICS: The co-funding from the university will match VINNOVA’sfunding, and is estimated to 2.64MSEK year 1, and 4.50MSEK year 2.

The funding for year 1 includes salary costs for 1.0 supervisors, 1.0 postdoc, 1.0 PhDstudents, 0.33 AT-recourses, cleanroom access costs, laboratory costs, other direct costs,and indirect costs (685kSEK), estimated as 35% of the direct costs.

The funding for year 2 includes 1.1 supervisors, 1.0 postdoc, 3.0 PhD students, 0.5 ATresources, direct costs as for year 1, and indirect costs (35% = 1,168kSEK).

In addition to this, the co-funding from SICS will directly match that part of VINNOVA’sfunding that will be transferred to the Institute. That is, the research groups will co-fundthe Center well above the funding from VINNOVA.

Companies and public agencies:The intended co-funding from company partners and publicagency partners according to their Letters of Intent is tabulated in Appendix 4. The mini-mum total co-funding committed for the first two years is 9,170MSEK. In addition, someLetters of Intent indicate interest to have a substantially larger involvement although thepartners are not able to commit to a higher degree today. Alas, the minimum commitmentfrom our partners makes well above the funding from VINNOVA.

1.5 Collaboration and Innovation environment

1.5.1 Location at Uppsala and critical mass

The Center will be located at Uppsala University and will combine the expertise of six distinctresearch groups providing competence on: wireless sensor networks, wireless ad hoc network-ing, networking security, microsystem technologies, sensorics, antennas, wireless communica-tion, computer architectures, microwave technologies, energy scavenging, novel sensitive sen-sors, and signal processing. These groups come from three organisations: The Ångström Lab-


Executive BoardScientific Director,

Manager, WP leaders

Steering BoardExploitation Board

IPR Manager

ScientificReference

Group

WP5, Work PackageWP4, Work Package

WP3, Work PackageWP2, Work Package

WP1, Work Package

Figure 1.4: Organization

oratory which has world-class research in material sciences, The Department of InformationTechnology which is fully fledged IT department with groups on real-time, automatic control,computer architectures, and other relevant information technology research for wireless sensornetworks, and SICS which is an industry supported research organization. The partners arelocated on the same campus area and will create a geographically close Center with the nec-essary critical mass that is unique. The partner SICS, which is an industry supported researchorganization, is mainly localized in Kista but has also an office at the Uppsala Science Park.

The groups’ industrial contacts, scientific competence and internationally widely acclaimedexpertise provide a solid basis for setting up a strong national research Center in the field. Thecombined competence of the applicants is more than sufficient for an efficient functioning ofthe proposed Center. This does not mean, however, that the Center would not seek or acquireexternal expertise, advice or help. The latter will be done on a constant basis through the toolsdescribed below, in addition to recruiting Post Docs, PhD students and other researchers atappropriate times.

The Center will be considerably larger than can solely be financed by the support of uni-versity, industry and Vinnova. Besides considerable faculty funding the partners currently haveabout 10MSEK annually in funding from EU-projects and a substantial part is sensor networkrelated. Our national annual funding is about 25MSEK for all the applicants and also here amajor part is sensor network related. Taken together the center will be of considerable size andwell beyond the necessary critical mass.

1.5.2 Organization

The organization of the center follow the university recommendation for centers. The manage-ment structure of WISENET is depicted in the Figure 1.4. The Steering board has the overallresponsibility and consists of representatives from the industry partners, the university gover-nance (e.g. faculty dean), Vinnova, and the Director of the center. The Executive Board is keptsmall with a Scientific Director, a day-to-day Manager, and the Work Package leaders, whichinitially will be the partners of this proposal. The Exploitation Board will be directed by anIPR Manager and will consist of representatives from the industry and the academic partners.The Scientific Reference group will consist mainly of international experts who will evaluatethe scientific program and results.

Prof. Gunningberg is proposed as the Scientific Director of the Center. He is professor inComputer Communication and Networking is maybe more central for sensor networks than the


other areas in this proposal. In addition, Prof. Gunningberg has a long back-ground both asa project leader, as well as manager for a research group. For the last 17 years he has beenleading research groups with up to 18 people. He is in his field internationally well known andwell connected both in Europe as well as in the US. Most of his projects have been industryrelated and many of them financed directly by industry. He also has a strong entrepreneurialexperience, which is demonstrated by his participation in two start-up companies.

1.5.3 Strategies for Research Communication and Knowledge Transfer

The overall communication goal is to communicate research results and to increase knowledgeabout ongoing research and activities with commercial potential within the Center. These activ-ities will be in accordance with the Policy for Communication adopted by Uppsala Universityin 2005. The following target groups together with summaries of activities are listed below.

• The scientific community: scientific publishing, international scientific conferences, work-shops, demonstrators, standard suggestions and other academic events.

• Industry and public organizations: direct collaborations, prototypes, seminars and lec-tures, patents, personal networking and demonstrators.

• Funding agencies: annual reports and participation in funding events.• Media contact: press releases and media events.• The general public: popular lectures/articles, exhibitions, demonstrators interactive web-

pages.• Students and employees of Uppsala university: Master programs, courses, lectures, sem-

inars, Summer Schools, and PhD and undergraduate theses.

A website will be available to all target groups which will be connected directly to the Fac-ulty website for research information. This, in turn, is linked automatically to the site “Forskn-ing.se", published by the Swedish Research Council.

A Research Communication Group will be appointed, with the responsibility for coordi-nating communication activities. The Group will include researchers and communication ex-perts (e.g., a Department Public Relations Officer). The role of the Communication Groupwill be to revise and develop the overall strategy for research communication and to screenproposed projects, suggesting relevant activities for each target group, as well as to evaluateactivities. One member of the group will be appointed “Communications Contact", i.e. theexternal spokesperson, e.g. for media contacts. That person will also interact with the FacultyPublic Relations Office, as well as the University Information Office, to promote high qualityin all activities and the further development of communication methods.

Industry and public organizations: Commercial Results

The commercially interesting results are likely to be prototypes, patents, software, protocoldrafts and know-how. The rights to these results are stipulated in the forthcoming Partner Con-tract. The commercial strategy plans are further discussed in Enclosure 6. Our demonstrationtest-bed will be an important part in our knowledge transfer activities. It will be used to demon-strate our own results, as well as other important results from other international research ef-forts. Stable generations of the test-bed will be used by industrial partners for experimentingwith their applications.


The scientific community: Academic Results

Academic results will be disseminated via traditional channels, such as journals, conferences,and workshops. Since we will produce prototypes in the form of hardware and software, wewill make them available to the research community without license fees, whenever they are notin conflict with exploitation interests and when the results will generate goodwill for the Center.We plan to organize special WSN workshops in conjunction with international workshops andconferences which will both strengthen the dissemination of research results as well as theprofile of the Center. Suggestions for new standards, for example within networking, will bepresented for relevant standardization bodies.

Students: Knowledge Transfer Through Educational Impact

The Center will have a direct impact on Undergraduate Education. WSN is already taughtin advanced undergraduate courses in the form of seminars and projects. These projects areextremely popular among the students, and we plan to propose new regular courses on WSNsin the near future. WSNs fits very well into the multi-disciplinary Engineering Programs offeredby Uppsala University.

In the long term, there is a huge potential for producing Masters students with a WSNprofile, both for an emerging sensor industry and for sensor application industries. This is clearfrom our industrial partners. The Center plans to initiate such a Master program at the university.An international Masters Program on RF Microsystems is already being planned together withpartners in the EU NoE AMICOM, where courses in relevant areas like communication, micro-structuring, microwave technology, etc. will be given. Collaboration under the ERASMUSumbrella will provide an opportunity for international students to work within the Center.

Furthermore, the Center will provide a unique opportunity for graduate students to be ex-posed to a multitude of different research disciplines. As a Center of the highest internationalquality, it will also allow PhD students to interact with international visitors and thereby acquirenew perspectives as well as develop their own professional contact networks. We see the Centeras a national asset for all Swedish PhD students, and will therefore establish Summer Schoolsand short courses, to be taught by distinguished guest researchers.

The general public: Demonstrators and Interactive web-pages.

The Center will produce results that will have an everyday impact on virtually all individuals inour future society. We will interact with embedded sensors in appliances, cars, entertainmentsystems, surveillance systems, etc. It is therefor likely that the general public both will be veryinterested in the research and also want to understand the consequences of using the technology.In our communication strategy we would like to make our technology available to the public inthe form of hand-on demonstrators, interactive web-pages and popular articles on possibilitiesas well as the consequences of WSNs. We will work with communication experts so that ourweb-site is informative for both experts as well as novices and even for small children. We willprovide means for asking questions and possibly chatting with a researcher on the web.

1.5.4 Relation to Berzelius application BEWISENET

A related application has been submitted to the VR/Vinnova program Berzelius under theacronym BEWISENET. These two applications complement each other and they arenot mu-tually exclusive.On the contrary, we believe that both centers shall be funded. While BE-


WISENET is centered around long-term fundamental issues, WISENET focuses on creating anexcellent environment for collaborative research with actors from industry and public organi-zations. The WISENET program is broader and application oriented. It will use state-of-theart technology for conducting research with a more short-term focus. Immediate results canthus be readily transferred to the industrial partners. BEWISENET on the other hand tries totake a giant leap by solving the fundamental research issue of energy management under severeconstraints on size, cost, energy consumption, and longevity. WISENET will focus on severalcross-layer and multi-disciplinary research issues, not only energy.

It should be noted that the applications arenot mutually dependenton each other. Thecenters are designed to be successful regardless if the other Center being funded or not. Still,by funding both centers a large research body on WSN can be created with the unique potentialto consider both long term fundamental issues as well as more application oriented ones.

1.5.5 Development of leadership and entrepreneurship

Uppsala Univeristy offer high quality leadership courses and entrepreneur courses to all cate-gories of staff and students. It also offers manager courses for department chairs, deans andCenter leaders. Some of the applicants of this proposal have already been selected for this typecourses. The Center will encourage project leaders and research staff to follow these courses.Furthermore, several of the applicants have personal experiences of starting companies andcould act as mentors when results should be commercialized.

1.6 University innovation environment and strategies

Uppsala University, together with industrial partners at Uppsala Science Park provide a com-plete support environment for commercialization of the results and innovations, including in-cubators, early financing organizations, holding companies, patent application support and en-trepreneur courses. The WISENET will interact with these organizations mainly through theIPR manager and Exploitation Board.

Results that may be subject to patenting will be negotiated first hand with our industrialpartners as well as with the holding companies of Uppsala University (Uppsala universitetsUtveckling AB, Forskarpatent i Uppsala AB, UIC), Uppsala universitets NäringslivskontaktAB, Uppsala Bio, Teknikbrostiftelsen and others. These organisations will provide all the nec-essary support with respect to the evaluation and commercialization of the results. Several ofthe applicants have personal experiences from such interaction by starting companies in theircareers. Also, some individuals within WISENET participate in "Ångströmakademin", which isan innovation system initiated jointly by Vinnova and Uppsala Universitets Näringslivskontaktfor academy-industry collaboration.

Within the fast growing conglomerate of high tech companies at Uppsala Science Park, thereare excellent opportunities for collaboration in the areas of biotechnology, medicine and healthare. Such collaboration could potentially result in new spin-offs and equally importantly instrengthening the positions of existing SME’s in the region. Needless to mention that the abovesupport infrastructure has been built intentionally as part of the University’s long term strategicplans and ambitions to create an optimal and efficient environment where research, innovationand industry thrive together and benefit highly from each other. It is also clear that this in-frastructure is specifically designed to support large research centers although smaller researchgroups can equally benefit from it. In this sense the Wisenet center will operate seamlessly inan already existing support environment enjoying full support in every aspect of its activities


related to attracting new partners, commercialization of the results, technical and legal advice,seed capital and start-up incubators, etc.

As part of its long term strategic policies the University considers existing and proposedlarge research centers (Wisenet included) as essential building blocks in shaping and strength-ening its research priorities and profile areas. The University is not only strongly committed tohelping set up such strong research environments but also make sure that these fall well withinits profile areas, targeting the following two strategic objectives. First, the priorities areas areselected on the basis of a variety of factors the most important being tradition, existing expertiseand quality of research, as well as societal need and importance. Thus, the University aims atperforming focused, efficient and state of the art research and education in a few well definedareas to achieve maximum impact. The second strategic objective which is intrinsically embed-ded into the University research profile is the expectation that these research environments andcenters will not operate independently of each other but very importantly they themselves willcreate a symbiotic research environment, facilitating cross-center interaction, use and exchangeof expertise, involvement of relevant specialists in multiple centers, etc in order to achieve max-imum results and efficient use of resources. In the same context many of the centers are mostlikely to involve other non-member departments and research groups on a temporary basis forperforming one or another specific part of the research.

A specific example with respect to WISENET is the world class research on highly efficientsolar cells and batteries carried out at the University which, although not formally part of thecenter, will most certainly be invited to take part in it at relevant stages. Last but not least,as education and research are inseparable at University level the strong research environmentswill contribute greatly to increasing the quality of education, thus producing highly skilled andeducated specialists for tomorrow’s industry and academia. In this context, the proposed strongresearch environments are an integral part of the education strategy of the University to provideunique, relevant and high quality education which is dynamically aligned with the current andfuture societal needs.


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Enclosure 3: Center personnel

3.1 Manning of the WISENET centreThe manning of the WISENET centre will consists of the staff, Ph.D.-students, post.-docs, andadjunct researchers and professors from industry. The group responsible researchers are thefollowing:

Prof. Anders Ahlén (age 52) is well known in the international signal processing and commu-nication community. The group is among the world leading in the area of 4G systems research.Their research on robust and adaptive filtering, prediction of fading mobile radio channels, andscheduling of network resources are at the international forefront.

Dr. Bengt Ahlgren, SICS (age 41) conducts research in the area of computer networking in-cluding the protocols and mechanisms of the Internet infrastructure. Ahlgren’s group is leadingin operating system and communication protocol implementation for sensor networks. Thegroup is also very active in the area of network architecture including how sensor networks areinterfaced to the network infrastructure.

Prof. Per Gunningberg (age 52) is well known in the international Internet computer commu-nications community. His group is world leading in experimental research on self-configuringad hoc networks. Their implementation of the ad hoc routing protocol AODV has been spread tomore than 1000 organisations worldwide. Prof. Gunningberg will also be the scientific directorof the Center.

Assoc. Prof. Klas Hjort (age 41), Director of the VINNOVA Centre of Excellence in Mi-crosystem Technology - SUMMIT, is working on advanced micro- and nanotechnologies formanufacturing microsystems, focusing on polymer based systems and their applications in sen-sorics and microfluidic systems. The group is world leading on ion track lithography and its usein printed circuit boards. Recently they presented a world-record strong sub-ccm lab-on-a-chipmicropump.

Prof. Ilia Katardjiev (age 50) is the only group in Sweden on thin film based electro-acousticdevices and among the leading groups in the world carrying out both basic and applied researchon thin film based electroacoustic devices for telecom and sensor applications.

Prof. Anders Rydberg (age 53) has a group in microwave technology that is one of the few inthe world who are developing microwave monolithic antenna integrated radio front-ends usingcommercial radio frequency (RF) SiGe HBT IC in collaboration with industry, for sensor andtelecommunication applications.

3.2 Adjunct researchers and professors from industryProf. Hans Norström, Infineon - 20% at the division of Solid-State Electronics

Prof. Klas-Håkan Eklund, Comheat AB - 20% at the division of Solid-State Electronics

Prof. Bertil Hök, Hök Instrument AB - 10% at the division of Material Science

Dr. Bengt Ahlgren, SICS - at the Dept. of Information Technology (planned)

Dr. Thiemo Voigt, SICS - at the Dept. of Information Technology (planned)

3-1

WISENET Enclosure 3: Center personnel 3-2

3.3 The gender imbalance in the centreWISENET is a project in a technology-centred research and business environment where thereare fewer women than men working. At present this is also reflected in the staff organisation.However, the objectives of the WISENET proposals are such that they will influence the way weare working and living and will thus be of large interest to all citizens. To make sure that genderissues are adequately dealt with in the WISENET center, a Gender Action Plan (GAP) willbe formulated in a dialogue with Anneli Wennström and other gender competent researchersfrom the Center for Gender Research at Uppsala University. The plan will include actions to becompleted during the course of the project. The GAP will be set up during the first 12 monthsof the project.

An affirmative policy of preference will be established towards candidates of female gen-der with qualifications and merits comparable to those of male candidates. To make sure thatgender issues are adequately dealt with, a female representation is established to monitor andcoordinate all gender relevant issues in WISENET. The representative will be a member of theExecutive Board. An even gender representation is promoted for the WISENET Steering Board.

3.4 CV for the staff of the center

Name and current position: Anders AhlénProfessor in Signal Processing

Work address, Division Signals and Systems, Uppsala UniversityE-mail and phone: [email protected], +46-18-4713076

A. Networks in academia and industry (selected): EU-FP6 Network of Excellence (New-com). EU-FP6 Integrated project Winner (≈35 partners)

B. Entrepreneurial achievements: 2001; Co-founder of Dirac Research AB. The company of-fers state-of-the-art patented digital signal processing solutions for improving the sound qualityof audio systems. Today, Dirac Research AB counts several leading international corporationsamong its customers. July 2001-2004: CEO of Dirac Research AB. May 2005-Present: Chair-man of Dirac Research AB.

C. Research Contracts (total/average): 10 contracts (main or co- applicant) since 1999 (VR,VINNOVA, SSF, EU) ≈1.5 contracts/year and ≈ 1.5 MSEK/year.

D. Commissions of trust (selected): 2005: Technical Program Committee, vice Chair, Trans-mission Tech., VTC2005 Spring. 2004: Member of the evaluation committee for the SwedishResearch Council. 2004: International expert for the evaluation of the Western AustraliaTelecommunications Research Centre (WATRI) at the University of Western Australia, Perth,Australia.1998-2004: Editor for IEEE Transactions on Communications. July 1993-June 1999:Board member, The Faculty of Science and Tech. UU.

E. Number of graduate students, publications and patents: 1) Mathias Johansson, 2004(UU), 2) Nilo Casimiro Ericsson, 2004 (CEO Dirac Research AB), 3) Jonas Öhr, 2003, (ABBCorp Res., Sweden), 4) Torbjörn Ekman, 2002, (UNIK, Norway), 5) Björn Hammarberg, 2002,(Swe), 6) Claes Tidestav, 1999, (Ericsson, Sweden), 7) Erik Lindskog, 1999, (Beceem Com,USA), 8) Kenth Öhrn, 1996, (Bombardier Transp, Swe), 9) Lars Lindbom, 1995, (Tieto Enator,Swe). More than 80 scientific papers, 6 book chapters, and 2 patents.


Name and current position: Bengt Ahlgren (Dr.)Manager, Computer and Network Architectures laboratory

Work address, SICS, Swedish Institute of Computer Science, KistaE-mail and phone: [email protected], +46-8-6331562

A. Networks in academia and industry: Within the EU 6th FP integrated project AmbientNetworks: Lars Eggert, NEC, Germany; Robert Hancock, Roke Manor Research, UK; NorbertNiebert, Ericsson, Germany. Other international collaboration with Jon Crowcroft, CambridgeUniversity, UK; Holger Karl, Paderborn University, Germany; Torsten Braun, University ofBern, Switzerland.

National collaboration with the leading computer networking groups, including Per Gun-ningberg, Uppsala Univ., Gunnar Karlsson, KTH, Mats Björkman, MdH and Jens Zander, KTH.Very close collaboration with many researchers at Ericsson Research, Kista.

B. Entrepreneurial achievements:

C. Research Contracts (total/average): Total 11 contracts, ≈ 32 MSEK during 1999-2005(SSF, VINNOVA, EU, Ericsson, SITI, Telia). Average ≈ 4.5 MSEK/year.

D. Commissions of trust (selected): Member of the scientific advisory board for the SwedishArmed Forces supporting the development of a Swedish Network Based Defence (2002-2004).Member of the small project program council for the KTH Wireless Center (2004-present).Local arrangement co-chair for ACM SIGCOMM conference (2000). Served on the programcommittee for many conferences and workshops, including the IEEE Globecom Global Internetsymposium (2000, 2001, 2002, 2004), IEEE Infocom (2006) and HotNets-IV (2005). Reviewerfor the Computer Networks Journal and the Wireless Networks journal.

E. Number of graduate students and publications: Co-advisor for one completed PhD thesis.Has published about 30 scientific papers in international conferences and journals.

Name and current position: Per GunningbergProfessor in Computer Communication

Work address, Information Technology, Uppsala UniversityE-mail and phone: [email protected], http://user.it.uu.se/˜perg

A. Networks in academia and industry: Extensive international academic network, including:Jon Crowcroft, Cambridge, Christophe Diot, Thomson Research, Aruna Seneviratne, UNSW,Craig Partridge, BBN Cambridge, Christian Tschudin, Basel, J-Y Le Boudec, EPFL, MarcoConti, CNR/Pisa. Long term industry contacts include: Olle Viktorsson, Jan Höller and CarlPerntz at Ericsson Research and Oivind Kure at Telenor Research.

B. Entrepreneurial achievements and patents: Co-founder of OptiMobile AB, Kista 2002-,co-founder of UPNOD AB, Uppsala 1980-. Leader of an international scientific advisory groupfor Ericsson 1998. First level winner of Venture Cup 2002.

C. Research Contracts (total/average): Project leader for externally funded projects to a totalof about 75MSEK, average 4MSEK/annually since 1987. Swedish leader for EC projects:HIPPARCH, 1993-99, HAGGLE 2006-09.

D. Commissions of trust (selected): Member of ACM SIGCOMM TAC. Associate editor:IEEE Transaction on Mobile Computing, 2001-. Journal for Computer Networks, 1999-01.


Guest editor: IEEE Journal for Selected Areas in Communication. General Chair of: ACM SIG-COMM 2000, ACM MobiSyS 2006, Workshop Chair MobiCom 2004. TPC member(selected):SIGCOMM (94,98,00,01), MobiCom (04,05) and MobiHoc (06). Arranged 6 internationalworkshops. Member of the board of (selected): SICS (1987-90) SCINT, 2000-04, SSF/PCC++2002 -. Evaluator of research program: Britain, Norway, Sweden. Evaluator of four full profes-sorships in Sweden USA and Australia. Licentiate opponent.

E. Number of graduate students, publications and patents: Seven PhDs (main advisor):Mats Björkman 1993, Bengt Ahlgren 1997, Björn Knutsson 2001, Thiemo Voigt 2002, BobMelander, 2003, Henrik Lundgren 2005, Richard Gold 2005. Two PhDs are expected in 2006.Five Licentiate exams. Abour 75 refereed articles. Co-author of two patents and one provisionalpatent.

Leadership experiences(selected): Leader of the Communication groups at SICS, 1986-94and the Computer Communication group at Uppsala, consisting of 15 staff and graduate stu-dents. Organized a large conference with 400+ participants. Has been acting dean for a smallerdepartment. Leading an international advisory board of 8 professors. Leadership course at theSwedish Institute of Management.

Name and current position: Klas HjortAssoc. Prof., Materials Science, esp. Microsystem Technology

Work address, Materials Science, Uppsala UniversityE-mail and phone: [email protected], +46 18 471 4131

A. Networks in academia and industry: Director of SUMMIT with 12 industrial partners.Apart from the EC-projects Amicom (NoE) and CELLION (RTN) today active engagementswith the following partners from academia and industry: Acreo, Biosensor Applications, GEHealthcare, Senseair, Royal Inst. of Technology Stockholm, Swedish Univ. of AgriculturalSciences, Stockholm Univ., Uppsala Univ. (with groups from 9 Depts.), GSI Darmstadt, CIRIL,EPFL Lausanne, CSIC’s Inst. of Materials Science Madrid, Singapore National Univ.

B. Entrepreneurial achievements: The Centre of Excellence SUMMIT has spun out fourcompanies. Hjort has, in collaboration with companies in the Centre, protected his inventionsin several patents.

C. Research Contracts (total/average): In total Hjort has been responsible for externallyfunded research contracts of more than 5.5 MEuro. Recent years the external funding of hisown research group has had an average of 0.5 MEuro.

D. Commissions of trust (selected): Chairman or co-chairman of four Workshops and Confer-ences and Program Committee member in several others. Assoc. Editor for the J. Microlitho-graphy, Microfabrication, and Microsystems. Member of Expert Evaluator Panels for severalnational and international funding agencies.

E. Number of graduate students, publications and patents: Main supervisor for 5 postgrad-uate students. Has supervised 6 post doc. fellows and to graduation 7 doctorate degrees. Haspublished more than 180 scientific papers and several patents. Has been invited speaker, author,or co-author in 30 occasions. As a member of MEMSWAVE awarded as one of ten finalists forthe Descartes Prize 2002 of the European Commission.


Name and current position: Ilia KatardjievHead of Division, Professor in Electronics

Work address, Division Solid State Electronics, Uppsala UniversityE-mail and phone: [email protected], +46-18-4717248

A. Networks in academia and industry: A broad network with both industry including Er-icsson, Philips, Siemens, Thomson, Unaxis, etc as well as a large number of universities andresearch organisations.

B. Entrepreneurial achievements: - 2001: Co-founder of Bitlane AB.

C. Research Contracts (total/average): Coordinator of a EU project MEDCOM, programmedirector of a SSF framework in microelectronics, partner in EU project Biognosis, main appli-cant in a Vinnova project on sensors are among the current projects. Mean external funding ofabout 5 MSEK/year.

D. Commissions of trust (selected): Member of the Rådsforskningsnämnden - Vetenskap-srådet , Guest Editor of Vacuum, referee for 5 international scientific journals, member of theProgramme Committee of a number of international conferences and workshops

E. Number of graduate students, publications and patents: Fredrik Engelmark (2002, cur-rently with Seco AB, Gonzalo Fuentes (2003, currently with IMEC, Belgium). Currently su-pervisor to 5 PhD students. Assistant supervisor to 4 PhD students.

Name and current position: Anders RydbergProf. in applied Microwave and Millimeterwave Technology

Work address, Division Signals and Systems, Uppsala UniversityE-mail and phone: [email protected], +46-18-4713228

A. Networks in academia and industry: EC-projects: AMICOM (NoE) with more than 20collaborating groups and NEWCOM (NoE) with more than 60 collaborating groups.

B. Entrepreneurial achievements and patents: Three patents. Started the R&D group ofSensys Traffic AB, Uppsala and joint-owner of Azent AB, Jönköping, Sweden, 2002-

C. Research Contracts (total/average): Project leader for external funded funded projects fora total of more than 25MSEK, average 2MSEK/annualy since 1996.

D. Commissions of trust (selected): Expert at employments, reviewer for applications, mem-ber of graduate committees and opponent at lic. seminars. Member of the editorial board forIEEE MTT, and Sections B and D of the Swedish Member Committee of URSI (SNRV).

E. Graduate students and number of publications: Has supervised: 3 Ph.D.-thesis and 5Licentiate Thesis. Has published more than 120 papers including 4 book chapters.

Enclosure 4: Partner support

A number of companies has signed the LoI and are interested to participate both with ownpersonal or directly supporting personal in the center, se table below.

Contribution in kSEK(first 2 years)

ABB (Västerås)BioSensor Applications AB (Stockholm)Biotage (Uppsala)Ericsson (Stockholm, Mölndal) 1400Hectronic AB (Uppsala) 1000Hök Instrument AB (Västerås) 600Radi Medicals Systems (Uppsala) 1000Regal Components AB (Uppsala) 250SenseAir (Delsbo) 1000Swedish Defence Materiel Administration (Stockholm) 300Swedish Defence Research Agency (Linköping) 1000Swedish Railroad Administration (Borlänge) 2000Swedish Road Administration (Borlänge)TNT elektronik (Säter) 120Triona AB (Borlänge) 300Uppsala University Hospital (Uppsala) 200Sum of contributions 9170

Table 4.1: Companies, institutes, authorities and organisations that have signed a Letter-of-Intent and their interest in supporting the center.

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Date

2005-11-23Reference

Per-Olof Svensk

ffrRroNAYourReference

Anders Rydberg

Letter of Intent

Triona AB intends to participate in theproposed Vinnova Vinn Excellence-centerWISENET.

Triona, is an IT consulting company with leading edge competence within road,traffic and transport informatics as well as forestry data-systems. Triona hasextensive experience of IT dwelopment and wide ranging business knowledge.The turn-over is approximately 60 M SEK and the number of employees is about65. The Swedish Rail Administration and the Swedish andNorwegian RoadAdministrations are among Trionas customers.

Triona is developing systems for traffic planning, traffic management and trafficinformation, where the collection, aggregation and provision of data are anessential part. New kind of sensors will open new possibilities for collectin g datathat can be used in these kinds of systems. Improvedperformance of these systemswill contribute to for example traffic safety.

Security and safety in the information of the sensors are of vital importance. Thus,Triona is interested in the development of sensors with higher accuracy and moreaccurate and robust networking structures.

The co-operation is planned to start in the autumn ye,ar 2006 and foresee that theactivities will ramp up during the frst two years. During this ramp-up, the Trionaplans for at least the following initial contributions:Year 1: In kind contributions equivalent to an amount of 100 000 SEKYear 2: In kind contributions equivalent to an amount of 200 000 SEK

Mats Bayard, CEO

Postal address

Box762

sE - 781 27BORLANGE

Office address

BorganAsvAgen 26

Internet address

www.triona.se

[email protected]

Bank giroservice5083-7756

Post giroservice

1 857831-0

Registered No.556559-4123

V.A.T.No.sE556559412301

Telqrhone+46 243624 00

Telefax+46 243624 05

Enclosure 5: Contracts and Agreements

5.1 IntroductionWISENET is expected to generate results of substantial societal impact, as well as increasedknowledge, know-how, demonstrations/prototypes and patents. The board is expected to pro-mote entrepreneurship among the researchers, by setting up a policy of IPR handling, encour-aging exploitation through start-ups. It should be noted that four of the applicants of this pro-posal have significant entrepreneurial backgrounds, by successfully starting companies in theircareers. This background increases the probability of founding spin-off companies from theCenter.

WISENET follows the recommendations from Uppsala University (UU) as it is stronglycommitted to strengthen the ties between the academy, business, and society. The Center willcontribute to the use of the University’s research findings for the development of the welfare ofour citizens, business community, and public sector.

In addition to the main contract between VINNOVA, the University and the company/agencypartners, we expect that individual agreements with academic researchers on waiving of the‘lärarundantaget’ will be necessary in some cases, in order to give company partners legal ac-cess to results produced within the Center. We have a research group outside the University inthe Swedish Institute in Computer Science (SICS) and a contract between SICS and the uni-versity has to be made so that SICS agrees to the main contract with VINNOVA. Hence, SICSwill take part in our contract negotiations, so that the contract can be accepted by all partners.Also, we will probably need a principle agreement between the partners of the Center on howto secure exclusive IPR for a company in certain cases.

We have been informed about VINNOVAs plans to include a clause in the main contractabout sharing of results. We wish to make the following input to this discussion.

WISENET will be oriented towards application and company-specific development. Thiscalls sometimes for single-company projects, and a possibility for individual companies toreceive exclusive IPR. This situation does not imply that one company’s contribution in acompany-specific project is returned to that company in the form of IPR. Essentially all ofthe company contributions contribute to a competence pool developed with the academic re-searchers involved. The major advantage is that patentable results can be safely producedwithin the Center without conflicting interests, while at the same time the Center provides aunique asset of combined competence and tools for solving common complex scientific andtechnological issues.

A policy, which regulates knowledge transfer to external parties, will be developed in ac-cordance with the overall goal of the Center. With the help of the Uppsala Innovation Center(especially through the University’s development company and Holding Company, UUAB, andthe patenting services of Forskarpatent i Uppsala AB) the Center will identify, support, and de-velop research results showing commercial potential. Results that may be subject to patentingwill be negotiated first hand with our industrial partners, Uppsala Bio, Teknikbrostiftelsen andthe Holding Company of Uppsala University.

The Center will establish a collaborative system to increase the interaction between its re-searchers and established companies. As a basis for the collaboration we will use the expe-riences from the first generation of VINNOVA Centers of Excellence at Uppsala University,ASTEC and SUMMIT. An Exploitation Advisory Board will be created with members primar-ily from our industry partners. An IPR-manager will be appointed to lead this board. The

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WISENET Enclosure 5: Contracts and Agreements 5-2

manager will continuously evaluate research results. The manager will play a key role in thiscontext so results can be both patented and published. This person will also be part of the ex-ecutive board. The Center and its partners shall during its existence encourage new partners tojoin the Center.

For long-term research issues guidance will be obtained from a scientific advisory boardcomposed of internationally leading experts.

5.2 Utilization of the resultsAs the Center is truly cross-disciplinary, it is expected to generate results of substantial societalimpact, as well as increased knowledge, know-how, demonstrations/prototypes and patents. Aclose collaboration between the parties of the Center will facilitate the process of incorporatingresearch results into new products and applications. The IPR manager will play a key role inthis context so results can be both patented and published. In this way participants of the Centerwill have an advantage to exploit results before it is more generally spread. Then, by publishingthe results, other potential users will be aware of the new findings. A policy, which regulatesknowledge transfer to external parties, will be developed in accordance with the overall goal ofthe Center.

A result originated from research in the Center is jointly owned by its inventors, i.e. theactive researchers and their active partners. The Center will promote and provide guidance forbilateral contracts between the researchers and their partners of a project. All contracts betweenresearchers and their partners have to be presented to the Director, also if they have been signedoutside the Center.

The Director of the Center must contact partners with commercial interests if it is believedthat results are of commercial interest. Before publishing results, the researchers must providethe manuscript to the Director at least 30 working days in advance of publication. The Directormust take a publication decision least 20 working days before publication deadline. If anyresearcher or partner in the project wants to protect results they have to inform to the Director5 working days before publication. If a partner wants to protect results it is possible to holdpublication up to 3 months, but only until the result is protected.

5.3 SecrecyThe Center and its Partners background rights and know-how are to be treated with secrecy,if so is demanded and agreed upon. A written non-disclosure agreement (NDA) has then tobe made and signed by the active researchers, partners, and the Director before it is accepted.Such an agreement is to be hold as long as one of the signing partners wants so, up to 5 yearsafter the joint project in the Center has ended. Secrecy is not granted if the informed personcan prove that it was already known information and that the same information later is given byanother party. The information protected by a NDA cannot be transferred to a third part withouta written agreement from the researcher or partner that has signed the NDA, unless approvedby the director.

We note that Uppsala University and its Centers follow the Swedish rules on Public Informa-tion Rights (Offentlighetsprincipen) and cannot be hold legally responsible for acting accordingto the law.

Enclosure 6: Tentative project proposals - first two years

This Enclosure makes the research program described in Enclosure 1 more concrete by present-ing six tentative projects in more detail. These projects are candidates for being initiated duringthe first two years of the center.

Project 1: Sensor networks and infrastructureSensor networks need to communicate with existing infrastructure to be of any value in mostapplication scenarios. There are many interaction options in terms of how the sensor networkis connected to the outside world, but also in terms of the architecture of the sensor networkitself. The sensor network could internally have a hierarchical structure, e.g., utilising morecapable nodes as gateways, or could have a completely flat structure where all nodes are equal.The sensor network could be connected to the infrastructure via one dedicated gateway, or allsensor nodes could be connected directly to the infrastructure. Further, all or some nodes couldbe equipped with other power sources than batteries, e.g., a permanent energy source (poweroutlet) or with a non-permanent energy source such as solar power.

Research issues and approach: The main research issue of this project is to understand andmodel the tradeoffs in the above sensor network architecture design space, under specific appli-cation requirements. The approach is to develop simulation models which are driven by appli-cation requirements including scheduling and network topology. In the longer term, the modelswill also consider hardware constraints. The output includes impact on network scheduling,needed energy, needed communication capacity and wide area traffic characteristics.

Expected results: One tentative application area is a road safety sensor network, where alarge number of roadside sensors collect information about the traffic condition, weather, etc.From an operator’s perspective the interesting result is an understanding of the impact of theapplication requirements on the resulting wide-area traffic characteristics.

Tentative partners: Uppsala University, SICS, Ericsson, Vägverket, Banverket, Triona,FMV, FOI

Project 2: Antenna integrated RF front-ends for WSN nodesIn order to promote cost effective wireless sensors concepts requirements arise to integrate RFsystems components or functionalities, which cannot be realised by the conventional materi-als used in silicon technology. This calls for techniques like multi chip modules (MCM) torealise all functionalities. However using MCM implies that is necessary to decide betweenSystem-on-Chip (SoC) and System in a Package (SiP) for the right performance-cost balance.The applications will also have implications on the architecture, MCM technologies and powerscavenging to be realized.

Research issues and approach: The research will be focused on finding optimum build-ing and integration technique (from cost and fabrication point of view) for development of anantenna integrated multichip sensor module technique based on substrate with enhanced func-tionality. The antenna will influence the bandwidth, link budget, and transmission techniques.

Expected results: Integration of antennas with RF front-end using a MCM building tech-nique, where the selected technology (SoC and/or SiP) is determined by the application andoperating frequency.

Tentative partners: Uppsala University, Ericsson and TNT Electronics

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WISENET Enclosure 6: Tentative project proposals - first two years 6-2

Project 3: Thermoelectric power scavenging componentThere are many WSN applications where the optical power is not sufficient for charging abattery. In some of these applications, there are large thermal gradients, e.g., on heat pipes orengines. In the field of thermoelectrics, the most common method is to exploit the Seebeckeffect. Recently, Applied Digital Solutions have developed a thermoelectric generator able toproduce 80 µW/cm2 at 5oC temperature difference over the device.

Research issues and approach: We will develop a low-cost thermoelectric generator madeby polymer-based flexible printed circuit board technology and electroplating of nanowires inthermoelectrically good alloys through the polymer foil, to give a 4V output. The in-housedeveloped technology allows 50 thermoelectric pairs per mm2. That is, a 4V output and a totalSeebeck coefficient per pair of 0.1 mV/oC demands a surface of 80 mm2 (typically one side of asugar lump) at 1oC temperature difference. Much of the project work will be on the technologytransfer to printed circuitboard panel technology and on achieving an increased yield (to allowa circuit of 8,000 vias in series). The project will be performed in collaboration with industrialpartners and groups from other European countries.

Expected results: A 4V thermoelectric generator made by polymer-based flexible printedcircuitboard technology and electroplating of nanowires in thermoelectrically good alloys throughthe polymer foil.

Tentative partners: Uppsala University, Senseair, Hök Instrument and TNT Electronics

Project 4: Intracoronary pressure and temperature sensorsRadi Medical Systems produces a single use pressure sensor used for the diagnosis of stenosisseverity in the coronary arteries. The pressure sensor is mounted on a guide wire which is usedduring conventional PTCA, Percutaneous Transluminal Coronary Angioplasty. In recent yearsthe market demand has increased in terms of volume, handling and pricing. To be able to meetthese demands, Radi puts substantial efforts to further develop this product and especially thesensor chip itself. This is due to the fact that the sensor chip determines how complex the guidewire assembly will become. At present the sensor chip utilizes a piezo-resistive detection ofpressure induced strain on a thin diaphragm. The benefit of this solution is that it is a wellknown principle. However, drawbacks like insulation, parasitic resistance and lead wires limitthe assembly, and therefore the handling properties of the device. One possible improvementwould therefore be to use a frequency modulated pressure sensor.

Research issues and approach: The Piezoelectric films and resonators developed at Upp-sala University could be an alternative solution to achieve a frequency modulated sensor. Thereare however, some unexplored issues that have to be investigated further before a piezoelectricsensor chip can be implemented into the device. Therefore, issues like, sensitivity, stability,frequency as well as environmental effects of the film shall be studied in great detail. In a longterm perspective a wireless interrogation of the sensor head is also envisaged.

Expected results: Prototype and product development.Tentative partners: Radi Medical Systems, Uppsala University

Project 5: Energy aware network resource schedulingSensors typically use more energy for receiving than for transmitting, since receiver logic mustalways listen for frames destined to that particular sensor, while transmitter logic and PowerAmplifier (PA) only needs to be activated when there is data to send. The dominating part ofthe transmission energy is not the actual RF energy transmitted but rather the communication

WISENET Enclosure 6: Tentative project proposals - first two years 6-3

and PA electronics. Receivers and transmitters should therefore be turned off when not needed.In the extreme case, when power-up times are deemed acceptable, only a clock should runtowards a scheduled wake-up time. Such schedules will depend on many aspects such as theapplication, traffic patterns, current configuration, interference between nodes, energy availableat each sensor, possible local processing and the possibility of energy harvesting.

Research issues and approach: Our short-term focus will be on holistic and cross-layerscheduling of lower MAC-layers, given the constraints of routing, operating systems, and appli-cation schedules. The proposed work builds on our previous well-known work on MAC-layerpower consumption. The basic scheme uses a 50% + ε on-off duty cycle. This means that wealways have an overlap during this epsilon without the need for synchronised clocks. If highersleep ratios are needed, the scheme can be applied recursively with the tradeoff of higher delayand redundant transmission.

Expected results: Novel algorithms for local and global energy management with the ca-pability to accommodate joint optimization, and an energy optimization toolbox.

Tentative partners: Uppsala University, SICS, Ericsson, FOI

Project 6: Test-bed developmentThe objective of this project is to provide a test-bed that facilitate experimentation within thecenter and integrates the results from other projects. Experimentation with real systems is anintegral part of the research in the center. Only experimental evaluation of the research resultscan validate the correctness and feasibility of the results.

Research issues and approach: No research issues per se are addressed in this project.It instead provides the development and support of experimental test-bed platforms which areused by all other projects. It is therefore of utmost importance that the test-bed is developedtaking multiple application scenarios into account.

Expected results: The first expected result is a further development of our existing ESBsensor node1 test-bed with support for energy management experimentation as explained in thedescription of WP4 in Enclosure 1. The second expected result is an experimental sensor nodeplatform which supports integration of sensor, radio and antenna devices developed within thecenter.

Tentative partners: SICS, Uppsala University, Banverket, Vägverket, FMV

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