Bio-inspired sensor network design

Simple self-synchronization mechanism from biological systems can be the concept for achieving globally optimal distributed decisions in a wireless sensor network with no need for a fusion center. Self-synchronization is found in many biological systems such as pacemaker cells present in the human heart where a chemical reaction takes place that generates positive ions. This reaction induces an electrical potential difference between the interior and exterior of the cell. Above a certain potential difference, the cell membrane becomes transparent so that the internal ions are fired to the exterior, thus periodically resetting the potential to zero. This behavior makes the single cell work as a pulse oscillator. At the same time, the cell membrane lets ions fired by neighbor cells enter into the cell. This induces an interaction about the firing times so that the overall population of pacemaker cells can be seen as a set of pulse-coupled oscillators. Engineers have shown that such system is sufficiently stable to guarantee a proper functioning, in that if the network of nodes is fully connected, there exists only one stable equilibrium represented by the situation where all cells fire at the same time. Full connectivity is now not necessary, as what is really needed is only global connectivity. Such bio-inspired design philosophy has great potential for devising simple and effective schemes for implementing globally optimal decentralized decision systems and potentials for wide area networks and emerging applications in distributed systems.