Research — Project Overview

CONSERN aims at developing and validating a novel paradigm for dedicated, purpose-driven small scale wireless networks and systems characterized by a service-centric evolutionary approach introduced here as an energy-aware self-growing network.

Within the project, Fraunhofer focuses on wireless sensor network integration and on cognitive architectures and methods enabling the self-growing paradigm. The self-growing paradigm, models a self-organizing network by a sequence of purposes (i.e. configurations and/or applications) developing along a pre-planned or dynamically configured life-cycle. When progressing along this life-cycle, the self-management capacity of the network can estimate the cost and benefit, based on suitable metrics that are meaningful for the targeted application, of reconfiguring the whole network or parts of it. In case of responding to a reconfiguration request from an external event, potentially in response to an incident, the cognitive control of a self-growing network can predict the decrease in capacity to realize a planned purpose that results from configuring back and forth. This is of relevance, for example, in resource constraint networks (such as wireless sensor networks), because reconfiguring and handling an incident may create dysfunctional nodes.

CONSERN did not organize project specific workshops but participated instead at various conferences, demonstration, and dissemination events (see publication).

• M. Emmelmann. Challenges of enabling high mobility in future flexible spectrum scenarios. Keynote Presentation. User Mobility and Vehicular Networks (IEEE LCN ON-MOVE), Bonn, Germany, Octber 4-7, 2011. (pdf)
• M. Emmelmann, B. Bochow, A. Makris, A. Kaloxylos, and G. Koudouridis. The self-growing concept as a design principle of cognitive self-organization. Management of Emerging Networks and Services (IEEE MENS 2012) in conjuction with IEEE GLOBECOM 2012, Anaheim, CA, USA, December 3-7, 2012. (pdf)
• M. Emmelmann and B. Bochow. Enabling cognition in system of systems: The distributed self-growing architecture. IEEE Local Computer Networks (LCN), Bonn, Germany, October 4-7, 2011. (pdf)
• M. Emmelmann. Self-Growing Use Cases requiring Fast Initial Link Setup. IEEE 802.11Task Group on Fast Initial Link Set-Up (TGai). Doc. 11-11/0441r1. . IEEE 802.11 Interim, Palms Springs, USA, May 2011.
• M. Emmelmann, M. Schuster, L. Tytgat, S. Schulze, M. Mück, and O. Yaron. Self-Growing in Incident-Driven Purpose Change (video documentation of proof-of-concept implementation and demonstration). CONSERN Project audit, Brussels, Belgium, 2012. (mp4)

A full list of public accessible publications of the projections is available online.

Fraunhofer FOKUS implemented of a Cognitive Engine and associated rule sets to enable self-growing of sensor networks under energy constrains. The developments included the specification and implementation of a framework realizing the connection of different networks and components to enable self-growing networks.

The development was integrated with developments of IBBT and Huawei as showcased in a video documentation.

• National and Kapodistrian University of Athens
• Huawei Technologies Duesseldorf GmbH
• Huawei Technologies Sweden AB
• Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft zur Förderung der angewandten Forschung e.V. Fraunhofer Interdisciplinary Institute for Broadband Technology
• Intel Mobile Communications
• Interuniversitair Micro-Electronika Centrum VZW
• Toshiba Research Europe Ltd
• Hellenic Telecommunications Organisation S.A.