Smart Dust: The Future of
communication and security
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Discussions:
Definition Features Architecture Prototypes Communication Security Benefits and Concerns Conclusion
What is Smart Dust? Tiny dust size device that combine
sensing, computing, wireless communication capabilities and autonomous power supply within volume of only few millimeters.
Smart Dust Features Useful in monitoring real world
phenomenon without disturbing the original process.
Consists of tiny, wireless sensors or motes.
Each mote is a tiny computer with a power supply, one or more sensors,
and a communication system. Small and light in weight
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Smart Dust project Features: Being developed at UC Berkeley by Prof.
Pister and Prof Kahn. It explores the limits on size and power
consumption in autonomous sensor nodes.
Size reduction is important in order to make the nodes as inexpensive as possible and also easy to deploy.
The researchers believe that these nodes will be of the order of a few cubic millimeters and are called “Smart Dust”.
Technical Features fusing MEMS (micro electromechanical)
and electronics on one chip Very small in size cost - now about $50 - $100 per sensor,
hopefully down to $1 in five years Autonomous power supply memory is only hundreds KB
Power and Energy Sources
Solar cells Combustion
Storage Batteries Capacitors
Architecture
ComponentsA single Smart Dust mote contains: MEMS sensors a semiconductor laser diode and MEMS beam
steering mirror for active optical transmission a MEMS corner cube retro-reflector for passive
optical transmission an optical receiver a signal processing and control circuitry a power source based on thick-film batteries and
solar cells.
Components of Smart Dust
Smart Dust Prototypes
Each sensor has incorporated into it… • a microprocessor• mini-battery source • Two way transmitter• Soon will be the size of a grain of sand
named a mote.
Micro Mote - First Attempt
300 um
Communication Technologies
Radio Frequency Transmission Optical transmission technique
a) Passive Communication b) Active Communication
RF communication RF signals are used to communicate
over relatively short distances. Minimize mote size and power
consumption. In this case, each message is passed
to a neighboring mote which is in turn passed to another nearby mote, and so on, until the message reaches the destination – the central monitoring station.
Form robust networks.
Optical Communication Active
High power laser sourceTransmission of modulated laser beam
Passive Does not have an onboard light sourceMEMS Corner Cube ReflectorEmit modulated ambient light
Corner Cube Retro-reflector(CCR)
Comprises of three mutually perpendicular mirrors of gold-coated poly-silicon.
Has the property that any incident ray of light is reflected back to the source provided that it is incident within a certain range of angles centered about the cube’s body diagonal.
Proves effective in reducing energy consumption.
A CORNER CUBE RETROREFLECTOR
Disadvantages of optical communication
1. Requires an uninterrupted line-of-sight. 2. They also have directional characteristics that
should be considered in system design. 3. Tradeoffs occur between bit rate, energy/bit
and distance.4. Active transmission consumes more power 5. Collision during transmission to base station is
rare, but collision during point to point communication is a potential problem and a current research topic.
Smart Dust Processors Require microprocessors and
microcontrollers for all the required processing.
Microprocessors used are Intel Strong-Arms, Motorola .
Microcontrollers are Atmel, Microchip and Motorola
Communication
Smart dusts will be the future of communication, because its more reliable than the present communication network.
Even when a mote stops functioning, the next mote nearer to it resumes the operation of the destroyed mote.
Providing Security Having many sensors, smart dust keeps
track of environmental changes and alerts the concerned if something unexpected happens.
They are used in sensing forest fires, fires in buildings
Weather reporting would be easy.
APPLICATIONS FOREST SERVICE
STREET LIGHTING
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APPLICATIONS contd.
INDUSTRIAL APPLICATIONS MILITARY APPLICATIONS BIOTECHNOLOGY REMOTE SENSING ENVIRONMENTAL MONITORING STRUCTURAL SOUNDNESS OF
BUILDINGS
ISSUES & Future trends Issues Privacy Security Environmental ImpactsFuture Motes sold in the future will be smaller and
cheaper Even as the price of smart dust falls,
revenues for the vendors of these devices are expected to increase
Benefits/Concerns
Pros Flexibility Affordability Efficiency
Cons Privacy Security Volume Toxicity
Conclusion Smart Dust technology
provides wireless, remote monitoring solutions.
Is available today in sizes ranging from a few mm to a few cm.
Ultimate goal is to reach micro meter scale.
Due to growing research interest, sizes and cost are fast diminishing.
Privacy is a major concern.
But benefits far outweigh the drawbacks.
Dealing with partial disconnections while establishing communication links poses critical research challenges
THIS IS ALL !
This is not the ENDIt is merely the BEGINNING of a
glorious, wireless future!
So, stay connected!!
References http://robotics.eecs.berkeley.edu
http://www-bsac.eecs.berkeley.edu
THANK YOU!