A Dynamically Reconfigurable Wireless Sensor Network Testbed for Multiple Routing Protocols

Abstract

Because wireless sensor networks (WSNs) are complex and difficult to deploy and manage, appropriate structures are required to make these networks more flexible. In this paper, a reconfigurable testbed is presented, which supports dynamic protocol switching by creating a novel architecture and experiments with several different protocols. The separation of the control and data planes in this testbed means that routing configuration and data transmission are independent. A programmable flow table provides the testbed with the ability to switch protocols dynamically. We experiment on various aspects of the testbed to analyze its functionality and performance. The results demonstrate that sensors in the testbed are easy to manage and can support multiple protocols. We then raise some important issues that should be investigated in future work concerning the testbed.