Reconfigurable Hardware for use in Ad Hoc Sensor Networks Supervisors Charles Greif Nandita Bhattacharjee

Introduction What are Ad Hoc sensor networks What am I trying to do What is Reconfigurable Hardware Methods of Approach

Ad Hoc Sensor Networks Wireless No fixed infrastructure Base Station  Collects Sensor Data  User Interface Applications: Habitat Monitoring, Military, Smart House

Individual Sensor Motes Each node is referred to as a Mote Motes have limited resources  Battery Power  Memory  Processor Processor runs almost at full capacity just to maintain basic functions

Sensor Motes

Component Structure Add an extra component enabling more intensive processing of sensor data

Reconfigurable Hardware Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) Contains 10,000+ gates Perform logic functions Link together creating complex circuits

Benefits Sensors will have the ability to do smart processing Hardware implementation is always faster Can run on low power Can be upgraded without changing the circuit

My Research Being able to reprogram the FPGA while it is running on the Mote What methods exists for live reconfiguration ‘Cheapest’

Reconfiguration Methods Most common method for programming an FPGA Using a ROM with reconfiguration data FPGA enters a passive state ROM downloads data into FPGA

Reconfiguration Methods Using the CPU FPGA enters a passive state Reconfiguration data is relayed from the wireless link into the FPGA

Reconfiguring the Mote Each mote contains an Atmel ATmega 128L processor Should be reprogrammed to recognise the additional hardware

What I Hope to achieve Have experimented with multiple existing methods for reconfiguration Able to present information on the most cost effective method Possibly create a new method