Empirical Evaluation of Pervasive Infrastructure Sensor Network Reliability

Unlike the infrastructure it monitors, sensor networks are subject to transient failures including data perturbations and data loss. This paper discusses the evaluation of sensor data using raw continuous readings from sensors that have been distributed pervasively through one academic building for almost 18 months. While the sensors monitor temperature, the results could have been produced by any sensor device. Data loss is due to the sensor device being unable to collect data at the requested frequency. This paper presents an analysis of the data loss to determine cause and identify solutions for mitigation of the problem in future sensor deployment. Primary causes of data loss are necessary reboots from application patches, and security issues.