Quality of service in wireless sensor networks

Abstract

The definition for the concept «quality of service» for wireless sensor networks has been given. The differences of the concept «quality of service» for wireless sensor networks from classic computer networks has been analyzed. Wireless sensor networks features have been analyzed as well as the requirements related to the quality of service. Based on the results of the analysis of wireless sensor networks features the following quality of service characteristics have been defined: latency, bandwidth, packet loss, network lifetime, area coverage and tolerance to change in the topology. The dependency of the quality of service characteristics on technologies used at different network model layers has been analyzed as well as the influence of the used technologies on the values of the corresponding quality of service characteristics. Classification of problems that can be solved by wireless sensor networks has been introduced based on different network traffic models, networks with constant and variable topology have been considered separately.