Exploring sensor network communication strategies with the mote-in-the-loop approach

The performance of wireless sensor networks is heavily influenced by the surrounding environment. Hence, in different scenarios different communication strategies, i.e., different packet sizes or retransmission strategies etc., are preferable. There are, however, currently no appropriate methods to investigate the optimal strategy. Analysis and simulation rely on abstract, often unrealistic assumptions and experiments with real hardware are time-consuming. Towards this end, we present mote-in-the-loop, a new approach to explore sensor network communication strategies. Our experimental results demonstrate the feasibility of our approach and make us believe that mote-in-the-loop can become a powerful and useful tool.