| In recent years wireless networking based on radio frequency (RF) technology has become common place. Applications for wireless technologies have emerged in nearly all types of industry where data must be accessed, shared, and processed in real time by potentially mobile computer clients. Wireless networking is especially useful where time or environmental constraints limit the user's ability to establish a wired infrastructure. One example of this type of scenario is battle field deployment of mobile sensor networks. In this case a military force has limited time to deploy a network of mobile sensor nodes, capable of gathering, processing, and transmitting data to a central base station where it can be used to make strategic decisions. When such a network is deployed, it is usually formed as an ad-hoc network. That is, the network is established and maintained without the use of any fixed switching or routing equipment.;Efficient deployment of a mobile ad-hoc network is dependent on addressing a number of issues which are typically absent in infrastructure based networks like wired and cellular networks. In this work, two issues, localization and mobility pattern formation are addressed while taking into account the direct impacts of terrain topology, mobility patterns, data traffic patterns, radio interference patterns, and power limitations. A localization algorithm which requires that only a single node be equipped with on-board GPS hardware is developed. The localization algorithm is shown to reduce the detrimental impact of radio interference patterns. Next, a mobility profile with a cluster formation algorithm which minimizes pattern formation error, power consumption, and network congestion is developed. The algorithms are implemented using a discrete event simulator and their performance is presented. |
