Hardware design experiences in ZebraNet

The enormous potential for wireless sensor networks to make a positive impact on our society has spawned a great deal of research on the topic, and this research is now producing environment-ready systems. Current technology limits coupled with widely-varying application requirements lead to a diversity of hardware platforms for di#erent portions of the design space. In addition, the unique energy and reliability constraints of a system that must function for months at a time without human intervention mean that demands on sensor network hardware are di#erent from the demands on standard integrated circuits. This paper describes our experiences designing sensor nodes and low level software to control them.