Multi-level design and optimization of Wireless Sensor Networks

This paper proposes a methodology to off-line planning of WSNs (wireless sensor networks) by addressing the problem in a multi-layer manner. At the sensor level a model is described to properly select and distribute the sensors in the environment. To optimize the cost and deployment of realistic WSNs, further design activities are proposed at an intermediate level, targeting board-level clustering of sensors. Finally, it is presented a methodology to hierarchically organize the set of sensors in patches with an additional gateway-level communication layer, to take into account also possible scaling of the application complexity. Particular emphasis is put on the cost modeling and on ensuring the correct behavior of the WSN against variation of parameters like sensor position, protocol, cost, etc.