The authors, from the Department of Organismic Biology, Ecology, and Evolution at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), discuss a technical definition of the term self-organization. This definition should help to better guide research into self-organizing wireless sensor networks.

First, the authors distinguish between the informal, intuitive use of a word and its appropriateness for technical use. In section 2, they discuss the difference between self-ordered and self-organized systems. Section 3 lists features necessary for any self-organizing system, based on the authors’ definition, which sees the self-organizing system as a collection of units, coordinating with each other to form a system that adapts to achieve a goal more efficiently. Based on these features, the authors review, in section 4, the characteristics of some prominent examples of self-organizing systems, like self-organizing neural networks, swarm intelligence, self-configuring wireless networks, and cultural acquisition of a common language. At the end of the paper, the criteria of self-organizing systems are discussed in more detail, as they apply to self-configuring and adaptive wireless sensor arrays.

In summary, the paper is a quite nice fundamental and broad discussion on self-organization itself, though sometimes depth is missing. The reader will find a couple of interesting references in the paper as well.