IPv4 wireless multimedia sensor networks

The acquisition and distribution of multimedia content, such as still images, audio and video streams, are the new frontier of wireless sensor networks (WSNs). Scalar data WSNs commonly rely on the IEEE 802.15.4 standard that defines suitable physical and medium access control layers, whereas wireless multimedia sensor networks (WMSNs) need advanced architectures able to maintain a predetermined level of quality of service (QoS). In this paper, we analyze the potential of the combination of IPv4 and the IEEE 802.15.4 standard, if employed in the innovative VISION's architecture for WMSNs, designed to support real-time video streaming. We implement IPv4 at the network (NWK) layer, because it is the most suitable protocol to guarantee the interoperability among heterogeneous networks, hence it easily allows the remote access to the WMSN's content. Suitable protocols for network management will provide the relevant performance parameters to the QoS engine of the VISION's architecture that will enable the full adaptability of nodes to the context. Since the main QoS requirements for real time video streaming are the maximum tolerable end-to-end delay and packet loss, our performance evaluation focuses on the analysis of latency and transmitted frames, in the presence of different traffic sources. We also measure the power consumption of WMSN's nodes for the video streaming service.