Title: A flexible approach to WSN development and deployment

Authors: Luis D. Pedrosa, Pedro Melo, Rui M. Rocha, Rui Neves

Addresses: Instituto de Telecomunicacoes & Laboratory of Excellence in Mobility – LEMe, Instituto Superior Tecnico, Technical University of Lisbon, Av. Prof. Dr. Cavaco Silva, 2744-016 Porto Salvo, Portugal. ' Laboratory of Excellence in Mobility – LEMe, Instituto Superior Tecnico, Technical University of Lisbon, Av. Prof. Dr. Cavaco Silva, 2744-016 Porto Salvo, Portugal. ' Instituto de Telecomunicacoes & Laboratory of Excellence in Mobility – LEMe, Instituto Superior Tecnico, Technical University of Lisbon, Av. Prof. Dr. Cavaco Silva, 2744-016 Porto Salvo, Portugal. ' Instituto de Telecomunicacoes & Laboratory of Excellence in Mobility – LEMe, Instituto Superior Tecnico, Technical University of Lisbon, Av. Prof. Dr. Cavaco Silva, 2744-016 Porto Salvo, Portugal

Abstract: A flexible Wireless Sensor Network platform has been developed and deployed at the Instituto Superior Tecnico/Technical University of Lisbon (IST-TUL). This test-bed integrates multiple projects into a single network, creating an expandable platform that facilitates future developments. To achieve this flexibility, a dedicated framework was developed, enabling fine-grained parameter control and application programmability through a centralised configuration panel. On top of this platform, four applications have been developed and currently coexist within the network, illustrating the new platform|s capabilities. The article discusses the test-bed architecture and deployment challenges, as well as the environmental interaction and vibration monitoring applications. An experimental evaluation of these applications| capacity limits and performance shows that in-network processing must be used with the vibration monitoring application to avoid congestion collapse. Furthermore, a minimum amount of time is needed to complete processing tasks with the Environmental Interaction Application (approximately 200 ms in our test topology).

Keywords: WSN deployment; environmental interaction; high fidelity sampling; in-network processing; performance measurement; multihop networks; vibration monitoring; wireless sensor networks; flexible WSNs; wireless networks; testbed.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSNET.2009.029396

International Journal of Sensor Networks, 2009 Vol.6 No.3/4, pp.199 - 211

Published online: 29 Nov 2009 *

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