Wireless sensor networks promise fine-grain monitoring in
a wide variety of environments. Many of these environments
(e.g., indoor environments or habitats) can be harsh
for wireless communication. From a networking perspective,
the most basic aspect of wireless communication is the
packet delivery performance: the spatio-temporal characteristics
of packet loss, and its environmental dependence.
These factors will deeply impact the performance of data
acquisition from these networks.
In this paper, we report on a systematic medium-scale
(up to sixty nodes) measurement of packet delivery in three
different environments: an indoor office building, a habitat
with moderate foliage, and an open parking lot. Our findings
have interesting implications for the design and evaluation of
routing and medium-access protocols for sensor networks.