  The dramatic advances in wireless communications and electronics have enabled
the development of Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs). WSNs consist of many
affordable and portable sensor nodes for collecting data from the environment.
In this article, we address management requirements of WSNs through presenting
some key management scenarios in the Smart Cities context, such as intelligent
transportation systems, smart grids and smart buildings. The limited resources
and heterogeneous characteristics of WSNs pose new challenges in network
management, which include the presence of various faults, the difficulty in
replacing and repairing a large number of sensor nodes, the existence of an
uncertain topology, and the resource allocation. To cope with these challenges,
we first discuss advantages and disadvantages of centralized and distributed
management approaches and then discuss the benefit of the multilevel management
schema. Next, we present in detail the specific features for a WSN management
system such as lightweight, self-detection, self-configuration, sharing
infrastructure, service monitoring, plug and play, context awareness and
interoperability. Finally, we present the required mechanisms for some basic
management functions.
