LiveNet: Using Passive Monitoring to Reconstruct Sensor Network Dynamics

  • Authors:

  • Bor-Rong Chen;Geoffrey Peterson;Geoff Mainland;Matt Welsh

  • Affiliations:

  • School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, USA MA 02138;School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, USA MA 02138;School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, USA MA 02138;School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, USA MA 02138

  • Venue:
  • DCOSS '08 Proceedings of the 4th IEEE international conference on Distributed Computing in Sensor Systems
  • Year:
  • 2008

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Abstract

We describe LiveNet, a set of tools and analysis methods for reconstructing the complex behavior of a deployed sensor network. LiveNet is based on the use of multiple passive packet sniffers co-located with the network, which collect packet traces that are merged to form a global picture of the network's operation. The merged trace can be used to reconstruct critical aspects of the network's operation that cannot be observed from a single vantage point or with simple application-level instrumentation. We address several challenges: merging multiple sniffer traces, determining sniffer coverage, and inference of missing information for routing path reconstruction. We perform a detailed validation of LiveNet's accuracy and coverage using a 184-node sensor network testbed, and present results from a real-world deployment involving physiological monitoring of patients during a disaster drill. Our results show that LiveNet is able to accurately reconstruct network topology, determine bandwidth usage and routing paths, identify hot-spot nodes, and disambiguate sources of packet loss observed at the application level.