Deployment strategies of wireless sensor networks for IoT: Challenges, trends, and solutions based on novel tools and HW/SW platforms

Abstract

The research field of wireless sensor networks has experimented an incredible growth during the last 10 years along with the progressive inclusion of the Internet of Things (IoT) as the main foundations for the future of the smart and sustainable cities. The essence of a WSN as a self-organized distributed system based on low-power autonomous sensor nodes has envisioned the creation of novel solutions that cover multi-domain areas related to embedded computing architectures, telecommunications, microelectronics, and industrial technologies. However, this innovation process also implies new challenges and more complexity when designing and implementing smart applications based on this technology, from the requirement stage up until the final operational release of the system. This is particularly important during the deployment, commissioning, and in-field validation phases as a fundamental part to analyze and optimize the real behavior of the network with respect to what is expected from the theoretical simulation/planning models. In this chapter, a new perspective of WSN deployment strategies for IoT application scenarios is presented, trying to cope with today’s lack of well-defined frameworks and methodologies to efficiently carry out the commissioning, configuration, and on-site performance assessment tasks. New trends and solutions based on hardware-software support tools are discussed so as to provide an overall approach for accomplishing effective wireless distributed sensor deployments.