Accurate Emulation of Wireless Sensor Networks

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) have a wide range of useful, data-centric applications, and major techniques involved in these applications include in-network query processing and query-informed routing. Both techniques require realistic environments and detailed system feedback for development and evaluation. Unfortunately, neither real sensor networks nor existing simulators/emulators are suitable for this requirement. In this design paper, we propose a distributed sensor network emulator, a Virtual Mote Network (VMNet), to meet this requirement. We describe the system architecture, the synchronization of the nodes and the virtual time emulation with a focus on mechanisms that are effective for accurate emulation.