A Survey of Recent Achievements for Wireless Sensor Networks Testbeds

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) are widely used in the area of military, industrial, environmental monitoring and marine exploration applications. The applications are, however, prone to unexpected problems or failure during post deployment. This is mainly due to the limited testing of applications in pre-deployment tests. Testbeds are commonly used for analyzing performance and uncovering potential problems of sensor network applications in pre-deployment tests. This survey reviews recent efforts and achievements in the field of enhanced testbeds for wireless sensor networks. Unlike traditional testbeds with serial ports connecting motes, enhanced testbeds provide high-precision observation, reproducible environmental factors, controlled mobility patterns, and federation testing. Requirements and challenges of enhanced testbeds for sensor networks are discussed. Following the discussion, representative enhanced testbeds are surveyed. Finally, the research results are summarized and the future trends of testbeds are discussed.