Los Alamos National Laboratory computer scientist Sami Ayyorgun has developed a new communication scheme for wireless sensor networks with improved connectivity, energy, delay, throughput, system longevity, coverage, and security.

Wireless sensor networks depend on small, independently powered multihop sensor “motes” to communicate.

Proponents of wireless sensor networks see a world with deployments to improve a wide range of operations. Engineers could wirelessly monitor miles of gas and oil pipelines stretching across arid land for ruptures, damage, and tampering. Rescue workers might detect signs of life under the rubble of a collapsed building after an earthquake, thanks to a network of sensors inside the structure. Armed forces could keep an eye on a combat zone or a vast international border via a sensor network that could promptly provide alerts of any intrusion or illicit trafficking.