Dust Networks
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| private | |
| Industry | specialized semiconductors |
| Founded | 2004 |
| Headquarters | 30695 Huntwood Avenue Hayward, California United States |
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Key people
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Kristofer S. J. Pister, co-founder and CTO Joy Weiss, President and CEO |
| Products | Wireless sensor network devices |
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Number of employees
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Approximately 45 (2011) |
| Website | www.dustnetworks.com |
Dust Networks, Inc. is a company specializing in the design and manufacture of wireless sensor networks for industrial applications including process monitoring, condition monitoring, asset management, Environment, Health and Safety (EHS) monitoring and power management. They are headquartered in Hayward, California.
Dust Networks works with industry and standards groups such as WirelessHART, IETF, ISA, and WINA to help drive the adoption of interoperable wireless sensor networking products.
In 1997, Kristofer S. J. Pister, a professor of electrical engineering and computer sciences at the University of California, Berkeley, conceived of and started the Smart Dust project with DARPA funding.
The Smart Dust project attempted to demonstrate that a complete sensor/communication system could be made of sensors one cubic millimeter in size. This involved advances in miniaturization, integration, and energy management. The project focus was independent of any particular sensor, and looked at both commercial and military applications including:
The project led to the founding of Dust Networks, to provide commercial applications of the above.
Wireless sensor networks attempt to increase transmission reliability and quickly adapt should the transmission fail and automatically route around failed links. This requires embedded networking intelligence that establishes, maintains and utilizes redundant multi-hop routing from source to destination.
Dust implements full-mesh networks, sometimes referred to as ‘mesh-to-the-edge’, which provides redundant routing to the edge of the network. In a full-mesh network every device has the same routing capabilities and is able to ‘decide’ where it belongs in the routing structure based on what other nodes it can communicate with, its proximity to the network gateway, and its traffic load. This allows for self-forming and self-healing. The multi-chip modules used to drive these networks are divided into 'gateways' and 'motes' (or mote modules). Gateways then tie back into larger networks used to make decisions within large industrial plants (oil refineries, chemical plants, produce facilities, etc.).
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Wikipedia