Declarative ad-hoc sensor networking

Networking protocols for distributed collaborative ad-hoc wireless sensing are constrained by requirements such as energy efficiency, scalability, and support for greater variations in topology than traditional fully wired or last-hop wireless (remote to base station) networks. In such a highly constrained and dynamic environment, conventional networking approaches are generally not adequate. A declarative approach to network configuration and organization appears to offer significant benefits. Declarative networking exploits application-supplied data descriptions to control network routing and resource allocation in such a way as to enhance energy efficiency and scalability. An implementation of this approach, called the Declarative Routing Protocol (DRP) has been developed as part of DARPA's Sensor Information Technology program. This paper introduces the concept of declarative networking and what distinguishes it from more conventional networking approaches, describes the Declarative Routing Protocol, and presents performance results from initial experiments.