Using Auction Based Group Formation for Collaborative Networking in Ubicomp

In many Ubicomp scenarios tiny wireless embedded sensor devices are used, and devices often collaborate to accomplish a common goal. This paper presents a group formation method designed for collaboration of devices. The paper analysis requirements for typical application scenarios, and then presents the general concept of the group formation process. The proposed formation method is a variant of an auction-based algorithm. The algorithm works fully distributed and is based on individual, private believes of the devices in the auctioneered item - e.g. a sensor value. The paper introduces the algorithm and analyses its effects analytically and in simulation. We show, that fully distributed operation, high robustness in the case of network failures and extreme low resource (energy) consumption can be obtained. We introduce an application case and present results from a real-world implementation.

[1]  Gerd Kortuem,et al.  Cooperative Artefacts: Assessing Real World Situations with Embedded Technology , 2004, UbiComp.

[2]  Till Riedel,et al.  An OO Approach to sensor programming , 2007 .

[3]  Albert Krohn Optimal Non-Coherent M-ARY Energy Shift Keying for Cooperative Transmission in Sensor Networks , 2006, 2006 IEEE International Conference on Acoustics Speech and Signal Processing Proceedings.

[4]  Ian F. Akyildiz,et al.  Wireless sensor networks , 2007 .

[5]  Michael Beigl,et al.  The particle computer system , 2005, IPSN 2005. Fourth International Symposium on Information Processing in Sensor Networks, 2005..

[6]  T. Riedel,et al.  Syncob: Collaborative Time Synchronization in Wireless Sensor Networks , 2007, 2007 Fourth International Conference on Networked Sensing Systems.

[7]  Philip Robinson,et al.  eSeal - A System for Enhanced Electronic Assertion of Authenticity and Integrity , 2004, Pervasive.

[8]  Miroslaw Malek,et al.  The consensus problem in fault-tolerant computing , 1993, CSUR.

[9]  Michael Beigl,et al.  Collaborative business items , 2007 .

[10]  Sotirios Terzis Proceedings of the 4th international workshop on Middleware for Pervasive and Ad-Hoc Computing (MPAC 2006) , 2005 .

[11]  Christian Decker,et al.  Collaborative Smart Items , 2007, GI Jahrestagung.

[12]  Nelson Souto Rosa,et al.  A reconfigurable group management middleware service for wireless sensor networks , 2005, MPAC '05.

[13]  Leslie Lamport,et al.  The Byzantine Generals Problem , 1982, TOPL.

[14]  Nigel Davies,et al.  UbiComp 2004: Ubiquitous Computing , 2004, Lecture Notes in Computer Science.