In recent times much has been written about how, once deployed, networks of devices with wireless communication capabilities will affect the way we work, learn, interact, organize, get entertained, fight wars, and recover from disasters. This interest in wireless networks has led to a fair amount of research activity in the areas of mobile and ad-hoc networking, addressing both systems and theory issues. However, not much work has been done on fundamental information and communication theoretic concepts related to wireless sensor networks, i.e., networks of tiny, low power, unreliable devices, equipped with very limited sensing and communication capabilities, and embedded in the environment.

This issue of JSAC is devoted to the study of performance limits for wireless sensor networks, as well as to the design of codes and protocols capable of approaching those performance limits. In the context of performance analysis for communication systems, information and communication theory are primarily concerned with efficiency considerations: what is the best performance that can be achieved by a system operating under given constraints? In this regard, a solid foundation has been laid for the significant progress in physical layer wireless communication of the past decade, leading to ideas such as space-time codes and opportunistic communication, that have already been implemented in existing and emerging wireless systems. Now, while much of that progress has occured for what could be considered relatively simple wireless networks (such as point-to-point or multiple access channels), many open problems remain for more complex networks, such as the sensor networks of interest in this special issue. And whereas a general theory of information and communication in networks still seems distant, the extreme resource constraints under which wireless sensor networks must operate strongly calls for an understanding of the fundamental performance limits of such networks, for those can provide valuable insights into what designs make sense, and can help identify areas in which theory promises performance much better than that attained by existing designs.

Papers presenting original work on various aspects related to wireless sensor networks are solicited. Specifically, but not only, papers are solicited on the following topics:

• Air Interface:
  • Interference-mitigating signaling methods (narrowband/wideband/ultra-wideband), adapted to sensor networks.
  • Synchronization techniques.
  • Multiple access techniques (time-hopping, frequency hopping, spreading).
• System Capacity:
  • Percolation models, random graphs, large network asymptotics.
  • MAC protocols (random-access, slotted access, contention protocols).
  • Capacity considerations in routing, flow control, power control, MAC protocols.
  • Capacity considerations for moving data into and out of the network.
• Energy Awareness:
  • Performance optimization for networks with a finite energy budget.
  • Renewable power sources.
  • Tradeoffs between in-network processing and communication complexity.
• Distributed Signal Processing / Communications / Control:
  • Distributed signal detection and estimation.
  • Cooperative transmission (relaying, energy pooling, etc.)
  • Multiuser detection techniques.
  • Distributed algorithms for data compression and error control.
  • Distributed physical layer processing.
  • Distributed fault tolerance mechanisms.

Prospective authors should prepare their manuscript in accordance with the IEEE J-SAC format described in the Information for Authors. Authors wishing to submit papers should send an electronic version (PDF format) to jsac-sp-issue@ece.cornell.edu, according to the following timetable: