The System Development Lifecycle - Learning from a Sensornet Review

Abstract

Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) have been promised a bright future and economic potential. Since the vision of ’Smart Dust’, the field has largely progressed: Miniaturization, integration and advances in MEMS technology have significantly stimulated research efforts. While there has been a lot of progress in theoretical work and system optimizations, actual deployments have been non- or underperforming. The realism of the deployments has exposed substantial and serious barriers to initial application ideas, to interdisciplinary research and thus to the adoption of WSN systems. By reviewing the past and present of WSN systems and their development, significant conclusions can be drawn. This work presents a review starting from the ’Smart Dust’ vision, describing WSN platforms and components. While assessing the current state of the WSN system development lifecycle, novel ideas for WSN research are discussed. The ideas and suggestions presented in this work serve as a basis for future discussions and support the advancement of WSNs.