Real deployments of wireless sensor networks (WSN) are rare, and virtually all have considerable limitations when the application in critical scenarios is concerned. On one side, research in WSNs tends to favour complex and non-realistic mechanisms and protocols and, on the other side, the responsible for the critical scenarios, such as the industry, still prefer well-known but expensive analog
... [Show full abstract] solutions. However, the aim of the GINSENG Project is to achieve the same reliability of WSNs that the conventional analog systems provide, by controlling the network per-formance. In this paper we present the GINSENG architecture and the platform that have been implemented in a real scenario, considered one of the most critical in the world: an Oil Refinery.