The efficient synthesis of information from noisy and possibly faulty signals emanating from sensors requires the solution of problems relating to (a) the architecture and fault tolerance of the DSN, (b) the proper synchronization of sensor signals, and (c) the integration of information to keep the communication and computation demands low. From a system perspective, once deployed, a DSN must organize itself, adapt to changes in the environment and nodes, and continue to function reliably. Current technology trends and devices facilitate several architectures for DSNs. In this paper, we propose a taxonomy for DSN architectures. Such a taxonomy is useful for understanding the evolution of a DSN and for planning future research.
