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MyriaNed is a wireless sensor network (WSN) platform developed by DevLab. It uses an epidemic communication style based on standard
radio broadcasting Radio broadcasting is transmission of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based radio st ...
. This approach reflects the way humans interact, which is called
gossip Gossip is idle talk or rumour, especially about the personal or private affairs of others; the act is also known as dishing or tattling. Gossip is a topic of research in evolutionary psychology, which has found gossip to be an important means ...
ing. Messages are sent periodically and received by adjoining neighbours. Each message is repeated and duplicated towards all nodes that span the network; it spreads like a
virus A virus is a submicroscopic infectious agent that replicates only inside the living cells of an organism. Viruses infect all life forms, from animals and plants to microorganisms, including bacteria and archaea. Since Dmitri Ivanovsky's ...
(hence the term epidemic communication). This is a very efficient and robust protocol, mainly for two reasons: * First, the nodes do not need to know who is in their neighbourhood at the time of sending a message, there is no notion of an a-priori planned
Routing Routing is the process of selecting a path for traffic in a network or between or across multiple networks. Broadly, routing is performed in many types of networks, including circuit-switched networks, such as the public switched telephone netw ...
, data is just shared instantaneously. * Second, the network is implicitly reliable since messages may follow different communication routes in parallel. The loss of a message between two nodes does not mean that the data is lost. Nodes can be added, removed or may be physically moving without the need to reconfigure the network. The GOSSIP protocol is a self-configuring network solution. The network may even be heterogeneous, where several types of nodes communicate different pieces of information with each other at the same time. This is possible due to the fact that no interpretation of the message content is required in order to be able to forward it to other nodes. Message communication is fully transparent, providing a seamless communication platform, where new functionality can be added later, without the need to change the installed base. Furthermore, MyriaNed is enabled to update the wireless sensor nodes software by means of “over the air” programming of a deployed network.


Inspiration

Traditionally
radio communication Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmit ...
is organized according to the master-slave philosophy. The way two nodes communicate is point-to-point. A command is sent
top-down Top-down may refer to: Arts and entertainment * " Top Down", a 2007 song by Swizz Beatz * "Top Down", a song by Lil Yachty from ''Lil Boat 3'' * "Top Down", a song by Fifth Harmony from '' Reflection'' Science * Top-down reading, is a part of ...
and a confirmation is sent bottom-up between two
hierarchical A hierarchy (from Greek: , from , 'president of sacred rites') is an arrangement of items (objects, names, values, categories, etc.) that are represented as being "above", "below", or "at the same level as" one another. Hierarchy is an important ...
levels. However, in
biology Biology is the scientific study of life. It is a natural science with a broad scope but has several unifying themes that tie it together as a single, coherent field. For instance, all organisms are made up of cells that process hereditary ...
this is organized differently. For instance
adrenaline Adrenaline, also known as epinephrine, is a hormone and medication which is involved in regulating visceral functions (e.g., respiration). It appears as a white microcrystalline granule. Adrenaline is normally produced by the adrenal glands an ...
in the human body works completely different. This message (
hormone A hormone (from the Greek participle , "setting in motion") is a class of signaling molecules in multicellular organisms that are sent to distant organs by complex biological processes to regulate physiology and behavior. Hormones are required fo ...
and
neurotransmitter A neurotransmitter is a signaling molecule secreted by a neuron to affect another cell across a synapse. The cell receiving the signal, any main body part or target cell, may be another neuron, but could also be a gland or muscle cell. Neurotr ...
) is sent to different types of
cells Cell most often refers to: * Cell (biology), the functional basic unit of life Cell may also refer to: Locations * Monastic cell, a small room, hut, or cave in which a religious recluse lives, alternatively the small precursor of a monastery w ...
. Every cell knows what to do with this message (increase heart rate, constrict blood vessels, dilate air passages) and does not sent a confirmation. This is the inspiration for MyriaNed in a nutshell. Another inspiration is the basic
radio broadcasting Radio broadcasting is transmission of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based radio st ...
principle. A radio with an antenna is made to send and receive a message to and from every direction. Implicitly it is not optimized to perform point-to-point communication. Wires are ideally suitable for that because they always link two devices. Looking at wireless communication, it should be structured in such a way that it uses the potential of radio transmission. The third inspiration is that of human
gossip Gossip is idle talk or rumour, especially about the personal or private affairs of others; the act is also known as dishing or tattling. Gossip is a topic of research in evolutionary psychology, which has found gossip to be an important means ...
ing. The term is sometimes associated with spreading
misinformation Misinformation is incorrect or misleading information. It differs from disinformation, which is ''deliberately'' deceptive. Rumors are information not attributed to any particular source, and so are unreliable and often unverified, but can turn o ...
of trivial nature but the way information is disseminated is one of the oldest and most common in nature. Information is generated by a source and gossiped to its neighbours. They spread the message to their neighbours, thereby exponentially increasing the number of people familiar with the information. Together these three inspirations led to the development of the MyriaNed platform. There is no master-slave structure in the network rather each node is
hierarchically A hierarchy (from Greek: , from , 'president of sacred rites') is an arrangement of items (objects, names, values, categories, etc.) that are represented as being "above", "below", or "at the same level as" one another. Hierarchy is an important ...
equal. MyriaNed uses biological routing which is random and independent of the function of the node. Each node decides what to do with a message. Furthermore, it sends the message to all its neighbours thereby using the basic radio communication characteristics.


Technical overview


Data dissemination

In potential the complete set of information (e.g. sensor values, control data) is available to every node in the network. By using an intelligent strategy, called shared state, this information is stored as a distributed database in the network. Nodes that are newly added to the network can utilize this shared state to instantaneously adapt and contribute to the network functionality. When it comes to caching the messages there are two scenarios. The first scenario, if a message is new to the receiving node (meaning the data was not received in previous communication rounds), the node will store the message in cache and transmit this message to its own neighbours. Secondly, if the message is old (meaning the data was already received before, i.e. through another neighbour), the message is discarded. If the cache is full, different strategies can be employed in order to make room for new messages.


Interoperability

Since there is no
top-down Top-down may refer to: Arts and entertainment * " Top Down", a 2007 song by Swizz Beatz * "Top Down", a song by Lil Yachty from ''Lil Boat 3'' * "Top Down", a song by Fifth Harmony from '' Reflection'' Science * Top-down reading, is a part of ...
structure imposed on the network and data dissemination is transparent, the network is naturally scalable. On the communication level no identification administration is necessary and messages have a standard structure. This makes it possible that a MyriaNed network can scale far beyond the limits of currently available WSN technologies. Also different functionality can be integrated and executed on a single network.


Energy consumption

In order to reduce the energy consumption of the nodes in the network duty cycling is used. This means that nodes communicate periodically, and go to standby mode in a large part of the period in order to preserve energy. In order to communicate the nodes need to wake up at the same time, therefore they have a built-in synchronization mechanism.


Radio communication

During radio communication a TDMA (time-division multiple access) scheme is used to overcome collisions during broadcast communication. Current implementations run on 2.4 GHz and 868 MHz radios. The concept of MyriaNed is however not restricted to these frequencies.


Topology

From the previous characteristics of MyriaNed it can be derived that it uses a true
mesh A mesh is a barrier made of connected strands of metal, fiber, or other flexible or ductile materials. A mesh is similar to a web or a net in that it has many attached or woven strands. Types * A plastic mesh may be extruded, oriented, ex ...
topology. The advantage of such a topology is reliability, and coping with mobility, because of the redundant communication paths in the network.


Setup

Setup and configuration is kept to a bare minimum because of the bottom-up approach utilized in the self-organizing network. There is no notion of a coordinator or network manager entity compared to technologies such as
Zigbee Zigbee is an IEEE 802.15.4-based specification for a suite of high-level communication protocols used to create personal area networks with small, low-power digital radios, such as for home automation, medical device data collection, and othe ...
or
WirelessHART WirelessHART within telecommunications and computing, is a wireless sensor networking technology. It is based on the Highway Addressable Remote Transducer Protocol (HART). Developed as a multi-vendor, interoperable wireless standard, WirelessH ...
. This reduces the effort spent on setup and maintenance.


Autonomy

When MyriaNed is used for specific applications, the ultimate implementation is based on a large set of autonomous devices which make their own autonomous decisions (e.g. controlling actuators) based on the available information that travels through the network by gossiping dissemination. The sum of all individual behaviors of the network nodes reflect the emergent behavior of the system as a whole, which is the systems application.


Costs

MyriaNed has an extremely small stack, uses low calculation power and does not need a large amount of energy. Therefore, it can be run on a simple
microcontroller A microcontroller (MCU for ''microcontroller unit'', often also MC, UC, or μC) is a small computer on a single VLSI integrated circuit (IC) chip. A microcontroller contains one or more CPUs (processor cores) along with memory and programmable ...
and small sized battery. This makes the costs of a single node very low. DevLab members work with a single chip solution in which the
radio Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmit ...
and
microcontroller A microcontroller (MCU for ''microcontroller unit'', often also MC, UC, or μC) is a small computer on a single VLSI integrated circuit (IC) chip. A microcontroller contains one or more CPUs (processor cores) along with memory and programmable ...
are integrated. This chip with an attached battery is smaller than a 2 euro coin. Installation and expansion of networks using the MyriaNed protocol is very cost efficient as well. There is no need for addressing and the information in the network is synchronized over time with added nodes. Therefore, no additional costs have to be made (like gateways/setup/bridges) in order to install or expand the network.


Applications

Because of the structure of MyriaNed there is no need for different profiles for market applications. Different applications can run next to each other without interfering. Instead they will only help each other by increasing the density of the network. Every DevLab member is free to use MyriaNed in whatever market they want. This has resulted in many interoperable devices in completely different applications.


Present implementations

Chess Wise, one of the companies behind DEVLAB, used the MyriaNED technology as an early base for Mymesh, their network protocol. This technology is used to connect, control and analyze thousands of devices simultaneously within demanding environments.


See also

*
Bluetooth Bluetooth is a short-range wireless technology standard that is used for exchanging data between fixed and mobile devices over short distances and building personal area networks (PANs). In the most widely used mode, transmission power is limit ...
*
Wi-Fi Wi-Fi () is a family of wireless network Communication protocol, protocols, based on the IEEE 802.11 family of standards, which are commonly used for Wireless LAN, local area networking of devices and Internet access, allowing nearby digital d ...
*
WirelessHART WirelessHART within telecommunications and computing, is a wireless sensor networking technology. It is based on the Highway Addressable Remote Transducer Protocol (HART). Developed as a multi-vendor, interoperable wireless standard, WirelessH ...
*
DASH7 DASH7 Alliance Protocol (D7A) is an open-source wireless sensor and actuator network protocol, which operates in the 433 MHz, 868 MHz and 915 MHz unlicensed ISM band/SRD band. DASH7 provides multi-year battery life, range of up to ...
*
EnOcean The EnOcean technology is an energy harvesting wireless technology used primarily in building automation systems, but also in other application fields such as industry, transportation, logistics or smart homes solutions. The energy harvesting wire ...
*
Z-Wave Z-Wave is a wireless communications protocol used primarily for residential and commercial building automation. It is a mesh network using low-energy radio waves to communicate from device to device, allowing for wireless control of smart home de ...


References


External links

{{ cite patent , country = EP , number = 2301302 , status = application , title = Broadcast-only distributed wireless network , pubdate = 2009-06-22 , invent1 = van der Wateren, Frits , assign1 = CHESS Wireless Network protocols