Abstract

A key component in efficient and intelligent sensor networking is inducing collaborative behavior. We examine collaboration from the point of view of synchronizing activity. Power consumption and pulse-coupled oscillation are explored in terms of low power time synchronization. More complex synchronous patterns are examined via Boolean Network state trajectories. Boolean Networks have the characteristic of simple components, namely Boolean functions, with localized sets of inter-connections. The result, even with a random density of interconnections, can be a stable self-regulating system whose state settles into organized patterns. Such systems can be analyzed for their basins of attraction, attractor state cycles, and stability. In fact, known systems can be reverse engineered as a Boolean Network. Boolean networks can also be constructed to solve arbitrary computational problems, such as K-SAT. The self-regulating group behavior exhibited by Boolean Networks and their localized interactions makes them an enticing model for studying self-organization and self-configuration in complex systems.