Techniques for Addressing Critical Requirements of Production-Grade Wireless Sensor Networks

In order for wireless sensor networking to provide real- world value, the networks must be able to address several critical requirements: reliability of data transmission, responsiveness to adapt to topology changes, power efficiency, and scalability. Persistent dynamic routing (PDR) is a breakthrough set of techniques that address all of these requirements to support production-grade wireless sensor network implementations. Much of the technology development in the wireless sensor networking field comes out of the traditional static networking industry (i.e. DSDV, DSR, AODV) that is based on a relatively static environment and stable links. As a result, these developments are challenged to address all of the above-named requirements to the level required for production purposes. By contrast, the research on persistent dynamic routing comes out of the sensor research field that presumes an unstable, rapidly changing environment. The relationship among robustness, scalability and responsiveness will be discussed, and the concept of PDR is presented. In addition, the concept of high-capacity wireless sensor network (HC-WSN) is introduced and its benefits are discussed