A trusted architectural model for interconnecting testbeds of wireless sensor networks

Designing wireless sensor networks is inherently complex; many aspects such as energy efficiency, limited resources, decentralized collaboration, fault tolerance have to be tackled. To be effective and to produce applicable results, fundamental research has to be tested, at least as a proof-of-concept, in large scale environments, so as to assess the feasibility of the new concepts, verify their large scale effects (not only at technological level, but also as for their foreseeable implications on users, society and economy) and derive further requirements, orientations and inputs for the research. In this paper we focus on the problems of interconnecting existing testbed environments via the Internet and providing a virtual unifying laboratory that will support academia, research centers and industry in their research on networks and services. In such a facility important issues of trust, security, confidentiality and integrity of data may arise especially for commercial (or not) organizations. In this paper we investigate such issues and present the design of a secure and robust architectural model for interconnecting testbeds of wireless sensor networks.