What is Auto-Configuration

Wireless sensor networks consisting of numerous embedded systems with wireless connectivity, called motes, have gained much interest in network-related research involving MAC protocols, routing, or data aggregation. The various projects that have been undertaken so far are mostly in a scientific context; the software development has not taken into consideration appropriate software engineering methods and processes. Practical adoption of this technology in industry, agriculture, building automation, or similar fields of use, requires well-defined software engineering processes. Building a sensor network application is either a systems engineering task if the mote hardware has to be developed as well, or a pure software engineering task if existing hardware is going to be used. Both cases are considered in this chapter. Each phase of the software life cycle is analyzed, and recommendations concerning the proper (software) engineering of wireless sensor networks are made.