Understanding packet delivery performance in dense wireless sensor networks

Wireless sensor networks promise fine-grain monitoring in a wide variety of environments. Many of these environments (e.g., indoor environments or habitats) can be harsh for wireless communication. From a networking perspective, the most basic aspect of wireless communication is the packet delivery performance: the spatio-temporal characteristics of packet loss, and its environmental dependence. These factors will deeply impact the performance of data acquisition from these networks. In this paper, we report on a systematic medium-scale (up to sixty nodes) measurement of packet delivery in three different environments: an indoor office building, a habitat with moderate foliage, and an open parking lot. Our findings have interesting implications for the design and evaluation of routing and medium-access protocols for sensor networks. Categories and Subject Descriptors C.2.1 [Network Architecture and Design]: Wireless communication; C.4 [Performance of Systems]: Performance attribute...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2003
• Where: SENSYS
• Authors: Jerry Zhao, Ramesh Govindan
• Keywords: Packet Delivery, Packet Loss, Sensor Networks, SENSYS 2003, Wireless Communication