Center for Embedded Network Sensing

Little of the work in sensor network studies related to data quality has presented a detailed study of sensor faults and fault models. We provide a comprehensive look at sensor network data fault types and a unified basis for describing sensor faults backed up by real world deployment examples. We also identify several considerations one must take into account when developing a fault detection or diagnosis system. We suggest a broad framework of important considerations when developing a data fault detection system and discuss some assumptions that can be made in this context. Based upon experience and previous work we define a series of features to consider when modeling sensor data for either fault detection or fault correction. We define three main headings of types of features and explore the effect that each type has on a sensor. Then we list all common faults that we have observed in actual sensor network deployments. We provide an example of how one may use such a taxonomy of faults.