IPSN draws upon many disciplines including signal and image processing, information and coding theory, networking and protocols, distributed algorithms, wireless communications, machine learning, embedded systems design, and databases and information management.
[citation needed] SenSys focuses more on system issues while IPSN on algorithmic and theoretical considerations.
The event kept the name acronym IPSN from 2003 onwards, but the full name changed from International Symposium on Information Processing in Sensor Networks (2003–2004) to International Conference on Information Processing in Sensor Networks (2005–2007).
It is expected that IPSN would keep the full name International Conference on Information Processing in Sensor Networks for the coming years.
In 2005 IPSN introduced a separate track on Sensor Platforms, Tools and Design Methods (SPOTS) to the conference.