Section: Scientific Foundations

Introduction

The research area of FUN research group is represented in Figure 1 . FUN research group will address every item of Figure 1 starting from the highest level of the figure, i.e. in area of homogeneous FUNs to the lowest one. Going down brings more applications and more issues to solve. Results achieved in the upper levels can be re-used in the lower ones. Current networks encountered nowadays are the ones at the higher level, without any interaction between them. In addition, solutions provided for such networks are rarely directly applicable in realistic networks because of the impact of the wireless medium.

FUN research group intends to fill the scientific gap and extend research performed in the area of wireless sensor and actor networks and RFID systems in two directions that are complementary and should be performed in parallel:

• From theory to experimentation and reciprocally On one hand, FUN research group intends to investigate new self-organization techniques for these future networks that take into account realistic parameters, emphasizing experimentation and considering mobility.

• Towards heterogeneous FUNs On the other hand, FUN research group intends to investigate techniques to allow heterogeneous FUNs to work together in a transparent way for the user. Indeed, new applications integrating several of these components are very much in demand (i.e. smart building) and thus these different technologies need to cooperate.

Figure 1. Panorama of FUN.