Title: On the Scientific Value of Large-scale Testbeds for Wireless Multi-hop Networks,
Abstract: Large-scale wireless testbeds have been setup in the last years with the goal
to study wireless multi-hop networks in more realistic environments. Since the
setup and operation of such a testbed is expensive in terms of money, time, and
labor, the crucial question rises whether this effort is justified with the
scientific results the testbed generates.
In this paper, we give an answer to this question based on our experience
with the DES-Testbed, a large-scale wireless sensor network and wireless mesh
network testbed. The DES-Testbed has been operated for almost 5 years. Our
analysis comprises more than 1000 experiments that have been run on the testbed
in the years 2010 and 2011. We discuss the scientific value in respect to the
effort of experimentation.