Energy-efficient computing for wildlife tracking

Over the past decade, mobile computing and wireless communication have become increasingly important drivers of many new computing applications. The field of wireless sensor networks particularly focuses on applications involving autonomous use of compute, sensing, and wireless communication devices for both scientific and commercial purposes. This paper examines the research decisions and design tradeoffs that arise when applying wireless peer-to-peer networking techniques in a mobile sensor network designed to support wildlife tracking for biology research.The ZebraNet system includes custom tracking collars (nodes) carried by animals under study across a large, wild area; the collars operate as a…