Challenges in Qualitative Accelerated Testing of WSN Hardware

Johanna Virkki, Liquan Chen, Yao Zhu, Yuewei Meng

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DOI: 10.4236/eng.2011.312153                

Abstract

Internet of Things (IOT) is a conceptual vision to connect things in order to create a ubiquitous computing world. In order to create such an ever-present network, a simple, reliable, and cost-effective technology is crucial. Wireless sensor network (WSN) is an important wireless technology that has wide variety of applications and provides unlimited future potentials for IOT. Since WSNs in IOT will be used in varying and challenging applications and environments, reliability and reliability testing of WSN hardware becomes extremely important. In accelerated reliability testing, test stresses are increased to cut down the time required to obtain a weakening effect similar to one resulting from normal service conditions in the field. This paper introduces three common difficulties that engineers may experience in qualitative accelerated testing of WSN devices: 1. Challenges in use of standard accelerated tests, 2. Challenges in component-level testing, and 3. Challenges in testing of prototypes. The paper will also introduce examples from real life reliability research and accelerated tests to clarify the presented challenges.

Keywords

Accelerated Testing, Internet of Things, Reliability, Wireless Sensor Network

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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