The ARESA Project: Facilitating Research, Development and Commercialization of WSNs

Within academia, wireless sensor networks have witnessed a tremendous upsurge in the last decade, which is mainly attributed to their unprecedented operating conditions and hence unlimited research challenges. Within industry, the projected business opportunities are huge with, e.g. according to Frost & Sullivan, an expected market size of approximately $2b by 2012 at a compound annual growth rate of 41.9%, therefore causing the interest in this technology to augment dramatically. The aim of the ARESA project is to capitalize on this academic and industrial momentum and provide clear and knowledgeable guidelines and solutions related to the research, development and commercialization of this emerging technology. The diverse background of the involved partners facilitates unprecedented insights into the design process from conception to revenue makings. This paper aims at summarizing some key issues one encounters when researching medium access control and routing protocols, formally verifying their proper functioning, developing low-power hardware, and finally commercializing wireless sensor networks.