Scheduling for composite event detection in wireless sensor networks.

Wireless sensor networks are used in areas that are inaccessible, inhospitable or for continuous monitoring. The main use of such networks is for event detection. Event detection is used to monitor a particular environment for an event such as fire or flooding. Composite event detection is used to break down the detection of the event into the specific conditions that need to be present for the event to occur. Using this method, each sensor node does not need to carry every sensing component necessary to detect the event. Since energy efficiency is important the sensor nodes need to be scheduled so that they consume as little energy as possible to extend the network lifetime. In this thesis, a solution to the sensor Scheduling for Composite Event Detection (SCED) problem will be presented as a way to improve the network lifetime when using composite event detection.