Policy-based distributed management for wireless sensor networks

Wireless sensor network is a revolution of information sensing and collecting, where the sensor nodes communicate via multi-hop wireless links. The task of management of Wireless sensor networks in environments with hundreds and thousands of sensor nodes is significantly more challenging than stationary and wired networks. In this paper, we present the distributed management architecture of wireless sensor networks on the basis of introduction on particular requirement for its management, to facilitate adaptive and autonomous management of wireless sensor networks. Then the mechanism and characteristics of wireless sensor network management are analysed. The study shows that the management architecture of wireless sensor networks should adapt to the peculiarities of dynamic network topology, limited battery power and constrained wireless bandwidth. The capability of the distributed management is scalable to accommodate the number and heterogeneity of nodes, autonomous and survivable to adapt to network dynamics, and economical to minimize management overhead.