Wireless Sensor Networks UESTC4020

  • Academic Session: 2024-25
  • School: School of Engineering
  • Credits: 20
  • Level: Level 4 (SCQF level 10)
  • Typically Offered: Semester 1
  • Available to Visiting Students: No
  • Collaborative Online International Learning: No

Short Description

This course provides an in-depth coverage of various aspects of wireless sensor network (WSN). It discusses and analyses working principles of sensing techniques and sensor hardware along with their design and deployment challenges. The course takes a layered approach for WSN design and provides an in depth understanding of the WSN architecture. It builds on students understanding of key communication technologies and educates year 4 students on WSN specific issues related to physical layer, medium access control (MAC) layer, link layer, network layer and routing layer issues. Finally, it provides a brief coverage on security issues and potential WSN applications in the Internet of Things (IoT) era.

Timetable

This course will be timetabled in blocks, typically one week in four with online support available between each block.

Requirements of Entry

Mandatory Entry Requirements

None

Recommended Entry Requirements

None

Excluded Courses

None

Co-requisites

None

Assessment

One individual coursework with a weight of 25% made of 15% report and 10% set exercise.

One final exam with a weight of 75%

 

The individual coursework cannot be redone as the feedback provided to the students after the original coursework would give any student redoing the coursework an unfair advantage.

Main Assessment In: December

Course Aims

The aim of this course is to provide participants with an understanding of the sensor network concepts and practical aspects of wireless sensor networks and an appreciation of their wide application area.

Intended Learning Outcomes of Course

By the end of this course students will be able to:

■ Explain the working principle of various constituent components of WSN and analyse the factors that influence WSN design including fault tolerance, hardware constraints, scalability, and production cost.

■ Analyse design considerations of various communication layers such as physical, MAC, link, network, and routing from WSN perspective and evaluate the performance of available solutions.

■ Critically analyse various deployment scenarios and carry out requirement analysis for making design decisions.

■ Design and simulate a WSN protocols and evaluate their performance. 

■ Explain various security challenges, localisation and clustering requirements along with their remedies.

Minimum Requirement for Award of Credits

Students must submit at least 75% by weight of the components (including examinations) of the course's summative assessment. In addition, students must submit work for assessment for the course laboratory or a grade of credit withheld will be given.

 

Students must attend the timetabled laboratory classes.

 

Note that these are minimum requirements: good students will achieve far higher participation/submission rates. Any student who misses an assessment or a significant number of classes because of illness or other good cause should report this by completing a MyCampus absence report.