Worst-Case Routing Performance Evaluation of Sensor Networks

Successful sensor network applications depends heavily on the ability of these networks to reliably and reasonably perform under the worst-case scenarios, extreme and unusual events for which many such networks are designed to detect. One of the key performance measures is the network´s ability to route measurement data from the sensor nodes to the destination node(s). This paper introduces a general framework with which worst-case routing performance of different sensor networks can be evaluated and compared. Our method can either be used as a design optimization tool, or a decision making tool to select and price contending sensor network designs and applications.