Sensor Networks Roadmap

This paper contains the Roadmap for Sensor Networks development at VTT. The work was conducted in the WiseNet (Sensor Networks) Key Technology Action (WiseNet KTA) project during 2006. The approach to tackling the problem is two-sided: first, we illustrate the technologies suitable for wireless communication in general and, second, we consider three different fields of application: consumer, industrial and infra. These applications have been chosen due to our vision of the most promising fields of application in the future. Most of the technologies can be used in all fields of application. However, there are specific types of communication standards for industrial applications. The use of technologies in different fields is a common interest when the technology revolution is going on at the same time as the cost of the components is decreasing. The purpose of this report is to give a vision of the future with regard to research topics in the field of sensor networks. We do not give milestones in terms of years in which the technologies should be ready but we do try to describe substantial results in the selected topics.