Arrangements and methods for developing a software toolkit that can be used to design or obtain parameters for a sensor network. High-level guidelines on the basic relations between sensor network parameters like number of sensors, degree of quantization at each sensor, and the distortion requirements, based on a deep analysis on two basic coding possibilities (multiplexed point-to-point, distributed) are contemplated. By evaluating tradeoffs among the various parameters, an optimization framework to obtain the most cost-effective design with required quantization capabilities pertaining to given distortion criterion is provided.