This paper demonstrates that it is possible to generate a reasonably accurate coordinate system on randomly distributed processors, using only local information and local communication. By coordinate system we imply that each element assigns itself a logical coordinate that maps to its global

We demonstrate that it is possible to achieve accurate localization and tracking of a target in a randomly placed wireless sensor network composed of inexpensive components of limited accuracy. The crucial enabler for this is a reasonably accurate local coordinate system aligned with the global

is based on relative coordinates that are simply the distances from a host to some special network nodes. We propose the second mechanism, called Global Network Positioning (GNP), which is based on absolute coordinates computed from modeling the Internet as a geometric space. Since end hosts maintain

Awareness of individual and group activities is critical to successful collaboration and is commonly supported in CSCW systems by active, information generation mecha-nisms separate from the shared workspace. These mechanisms pena~ise information providers, presuppose rel-evance to the recipient

simple, light-weight algorithm that assigns synthetic coordinates to hosts such that the distance between the coordinates of two hosts accurately predicts the communication latency between the hosts.

simple local node behavior achieves a desired global objective) may be necessary for sensor net-work coordination. In this paper, we describe localized algorithms, and then discuss directed diffusion, a simple com-unication model for describing localized algorithms.

This paper presents an algorithm by which a process in a distributed system determines a global state of the system during a computation. Many problems in distributed systems can be cast in terms of the problem of detecting global states. For instance, the global state detection algorithm helps

Abstract A distributed system can be characterized by the fact that the global state is distributed and that a common time base does not exist. However, the notion of time is an important concept in every day life of our decentralized \ r eal world" and helps to solve problems like getting a

of the cortical surface to (i) inflate it so that activity buried inside sulci may be visualized, (ii) cut and flatten an entire hemisphere, and (iii) transform a hemisphere into a simple parameterizable surface such as a sphere for the purpose of establishing a surface-based coordinate system.

coordination and despite the fact that each agent's set of nearest neighbors change with time as the system evolves. This paper provides a theoretical explanation for this observed behavior. In addition, convergence results are derived for several other similarly inspired models.