All networks from Storage Area Networks (SANs) to Telecommunications infrastructure have to be managed. Network Management is the process of configuring and monitoring the behaviour of a network and can be divided into the the following fields: Configuration Management, Fault Management, Traffic Management, Performance Management and Load Management. Configuration Management entails the configuring of settings for network equipment while the closely related Load Management involves the transfer of operating systems and configuration setting files to the networked equipment. The goal of Traffic Management is to prevent bottlenecks of data within the system while, as its name implies, Fault Management is the detection and reporting of errors generated by the networked equipment. Finally, Performance Management often leverages Business Intelligence software to provide reports regarding key metrics for the network. Of course, there are other areas in Network Management such as Service Management that we won't discuss here.

Typically, the goal of network management is to provide comprehensive information in a timely fashion. However, this goal is incompatible with one of the key goals of Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) which is to minimise communication to prevent a drain on battery power. Furthermore, the number of sensor motes is exponentially larger than the number of items of equipment in a typical network. This means that different mechanisms for managing WSNs need to be examined.

One mechanism proposed (See http://www.springerlink.com/content/2284243411648051/fulltext.pdf?page=1) is the Sectoral Sweeper scheme where a central node is placed in a region of the WSN to allocate tasks to nodes in that region.  As messages and tasks are delivered through a central node rather than through multihop transmission, energy consumption is reduced. SNMS (Sensor Network Management System - see http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.69.3012&rep=rep1&type=pdf) provides a lightweight system for querying the health of the WSN and logging events. The services provided by SNMS take up a minimum of RAM and can be integrated into TinyOS-based motes. RRP (see http://www.springerlink.com/content/r1964x44r101432w/) is based on supply chain management methodology and divides the WSN up into different functional areas and facilitates cooperation between these different regions to enhance energy usage and performance. The 'lifecycle' of the data acquisition is managed from its capture in the 'manufacturing' area to its processing and delivery in a 'warehouse' and 'service' area. The 'manufacture' area consists of sensor motes that generate or filter the raw data while the 'transportation' area relays data to a base station. Motes at the 'warehouse' and 'service' areas manage data by eliminating redundant data thus reducing energy consumption.

The selection of mechanisms outlined all focus on energy saving which is a key goal of any network management paradigm for a WSN. There are also mechanisms for managing traffic such as Siphon. SenOS and AppSleep can be used for power management of the nodes while Sympathy can be used for fault monitoring.