Abstract
Nano-sized wireless ad-hoc networks are expected to play a critical role in future medical, industrial quality control, environmental monitoring and military applications. Nano-nodes are expected to be invisible or marginally visible to the human eye, ranging in size from approximately 100 m a to few nanometers. Their miniature size implies multiple restrictions in computational and communication capabilities in general. This fact also applies to classic ad hoc networks (e.g. sensors), where it is resolved by adopting stripped-down protocol stacks. Following this paradigm, the networking of nano-nodes will require an even more simple protocol stack, at least until manufacturing capabilities in nano-scales experience a major breakthrough. To this end, the present work introduces a simple physical layer which combines MAC, routing, beam forming and source location discovery capabilities. Its functionality relies on the distributed, dynamic sounding of the network’s environment, and a subsequent specialization of nodes in infrastructure or single user roles. The efficiency of the proposed architecture is evaluated through extensive simulations. Serving times, coverage and energy efficiency aspects are evaluated in arranged and ran- dom topologies. The proposed architecture is shown to combine the performance and capabilities of the best alternatives per task, with significantly reduced energy consumption. Index Terms —Wireless Networks, Ad Hoc, Dynamic Infras- tructure, Nanoscale.