A Policy-Based Management Framework for Self-managed Wireless Sensor Networks

This paper proposes a policy-based management framework for self-managed wireless sensor networks (WSNs) called SNOWMAN (SeNsOr netWork MANagement). In WSNs, a number of sensor nodes are deployed over a large area and long distances and multi-hop communication is required between nodes. So managing numerous wireless sensor nodes directly is very complex and is not efficient. The management of WSNs must be autonomic with a minimum of human interference, and robust to changes in network states. To do this, our SNOWMAN architecture is based on hierarchical management architecture and on the policy-based network management (PBNM) paradigm. SNOWMAN can reduce the costs of managing sensor nodes and of the communication among them using hierarchical clustering architecture. SNOWMAN can also provide administrators with a solution to simplify and automate the management of WSNs using PBNM paradigm.