Self-Organization in Sensor and Actor Networks exploresself-organization mechanisms and methodologies concerning theefficient coordination between intercommunicating autonomoussystems.Self-organization is often referred to as the multitude ofalgorithms and methods that organise the global behaviour of asystem based on inter-system communication. Studies ofself-organization in natural systems first took off in the 1960s.In technology, such approaches have become a hot research topicover the last 4-5 years with emphasis upon management and controlin communication networks, and especially in resource-constrainedsensor and actor networks. In the area of ad hoc networks newsolutions have been discovered that imitate the properties ofself-organization. Some algorithms for on-demand communication andcoordination, including data-centric networking, are well-knownexamples.
Key features include:
* Detailed treatment of self-organization, mobile sensor andactor networks, coordination between autonomous systems, andbio-inspired networking.
* Overview of the basic methodologies for self-organization, acomparison to central and hierarchical control, and classificationof algorithms and techniques in sensor and actor networks.
* Explanation of medium access control, ad hoc routing,data-centric networking, synchronization, and task allocationissues.
* Introduction to swarm intelligence, artificial immune system,molecular information exchange.
* Numerous examples and application scenarios to illustrate thetheory.
Self-Organization in Sensor and Actor Networks will proveessential reading for students of computer science and relatedfields; researchers working in the area of massively distributedsystems, sensor networks, self-organization, and bio-inspirednetworking will also find this reference useful.