CEC 446 Wireless Sensor Networks Exam 2026

About this paper

CEC 446: A 2-page Exam for Wireless Sensor Networks (CEC446), University of Buea College of Technology, Level 400 Computer Engineering, instructor Dr Achille Fumtchum, 2 hours. Questions section: 10 short-answer theory questions covering power-saving techniques, multichannel ADC drawbacks, Von Neumann vs Harvard architecture efficiency, serial-bus communication between mismatched-speed devices, SPI vs I2C for the radio-processor link, static vs dynamic memory allocation, OS processes, antenna roles in signal propagation/reception, the MAC layer's purpose, and CSMA's hidden/exposed-terminal and idle-listening problems. Problem 2: a multi-hop energy-optimization derivation for relaying a packet through n equidistant relay nodes given a quadratic-plus-constant per-hop energy cost, solved analytically (continuous relaxation plus integer check) for two numerical cases (d=6, c=6 and c=4). Problem 3: a Wheatstone-bridge resistive-temperature-sensor calibration problem, solving for the balancing resistor R2 and then the resulting output voltage (as a fraction of supply voltage) after a specified temperature-driven resistance increase.