Worst Case Modelling of Wireless Sensor Networks

At the current state of affairs it is hard to obtain a predictable performance from wireless sensor networks, not to mention performance guarantees. In particular, a widely accepted and established methodology for modelling the performance of wireless sensor networks is missing. In the last two years we have tried to make a step into the direction of an analytical framework for the performance modelling of wireless sensor networks based on the theory of network calculus, which we customized towards a so-called sensor network calculus [1]. We believe the sensor network calculus to be especially useful for applications which have timing requirements. Examples for this class of applications are factory control, nuclear power plant control, medical applications, and any alerting systems. In general, whenever the sensed input may necessitate immediate actions the sensor network calculus may be the way to go. In this paper we summarize these activities and discuss the open issues for such an analytical framework to be widely accepted.