Test-Bed for Sensor Network Management Protocols

An implementation of a sensor network test-bed is presented in this paper. This test-bed will be used for performance benchmarking of existing and novel sensor networks management protocols. The sensor networks are unique as much as they are common. From one point of view, we see that sensor networks share many attributes with other networks having the same architecture or communication type. Thus a study of sensor networks can not but overlap with other areas of research. From another point of view, there are certain characteristics of sensor networks that differentiate them from others such as the high density of sensor nodes that can surpass the 20 nodes/m³ in some of the cases and lead to the need for appropriate management protocols for cooperation of these nodes. This paper deals with building a test-bed that consists of a PC which manages the network through sensor management graphical user interface (GUI) and communicates with the sensor nodes through a base station, which is implemented by combining a FPGA-based Nios II Development kit, Cyclone Edition serially connected to a MIB510 equipped with a MICA2 node with ID0