近年來，無線感測網路被應用在許多領域中，協助環境資料的搜集，如環境監控、入侵偵測等，但因無線訊號是無法看到，且容易受到環境的影響，因此如何協助使用者以快速且簡易的方式，佈建一無線感測網路是非常重要的議題。
過去無線感測網路佈建的相關研究都是考慮理論層面，他們沒有將一些現實層面的因素加入考量。我們的研究是提出一個無線感測網路的佈建工具，而這個工具的目的是希望能夠提出一個簡易明瞭的佈建方法並用盡量少的感測器來完成網路的佈建。這套工具主要是希望給予一些沒有無線感測網路佈建經驗的使用者有效及清楚的建議。最後我們利用個案研究來展現(驗証)這套工具的功用。

Wireless sensor networks have been widely considered as an effective tool for monitoring our environment and bridging physical world with digital world. One critical issue in wide adoption of wireless sensor solutions is the deployment of the wireless sensor nodes. The wireless signals of the sensor nodes are often affected by the environment and are very unpredictable, which make the deployment very difficult.
Previous works on sensor deployment tend to be theoretical, using idealized assumptions such as identical and perfect radio coverage. They do not take practical factors in real environments into consideration, such as walls, furniture, radio interference, etc. Theses factors make it difficult to derive a usable environmental model for those deployment algorithms to work properly. In this thesis, we introduce a deployment tool for deploying wireless sensor networks, assuming an environment that is difficult to model. Our objective is to develop an easy-to-follow procedure to deploy sensor networks while using as few sensors as possible. Given a set of sensors already deployed at target locations for collecting the data, the tool follows an interactive process to help the users to determine where to deploy relay nodes in order to link all the sensors back to the sink. The capability of the tool is demonstrated by a case study for deploying sensors in an office building.

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