System-level Modeling of Wireless Integrated Sensor Networks

Wireless integrated sensor networks have emerged as a promising infrastructure for a new generation of monitoring and tracking applications. In order to efficiently utilize the extremely limited resources of wireless sensor nodes, accurate modeling of the key aspects of wireless sensor networks is necessary so that system-level design decisions can be made about the hardware and the software (applications and real-time operating system) architecture of sensor nodes. In this paper, we present a SystemC-based abstract modeling framework that enables system-level modeling of sensor network behavior by modeling the applications, real-time operating system, sensors, processor, and radio transceiver at the sensor node level and environmental phenomena, including radio signal propagation, at the sensor network level. We demonstrate the potential of our modeling framework by simulating and analyzing a small sensor network configuration.