Wirelesssensornetworks PDF

Wireless
Sensor
Networks
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Wireless
Sensor
Networks
Architecture • Applications • Advancements
S. R. Vijayalakshmi, PhD
&
S. Muruganand, PhD
Mercury Learning and Information

Dulles, Virginia
Boston, Massachusetts
New Delhi
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S. R. Vijayalakshmi, PhD & S. Muruganand, PhD. Wireless Sensor Networks.

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CONTENTS
Preface�� x
1 WIRELESS SENSOR NETWORKS.......................................... 1

1.1 Introduction to Wireless Sensor Networks ....................................... 1
1.2 Usage of Sensor Networks ................................................................. 2
1.3 Applications of WSNs ........................................................................ 3
1.4 Difficulties in WSN Research............................................................ 7
1.5 Basic Requirements for WSNs ........................................................ 10
1.6 History of Wireless Networks ......................................................... 10
1.7 Electromagnetic Spectrum .............................................................. 14
1.8 Communication Networks .............................................................. 20
1.9 Communication Protocols and Routing .......................................... 24
1.10 Wireless Network Architecture ....................................................... 28
1.11 WSN Sensors Introduction ............................................................. 30
Summary .......................................................................................... 45
Questions .......................................................................................... 46
Further Reading .............................................................................. 47
References ....................................................................................... 47
2 NODE HARDWARE ARCHITECTURE�� 49

2.1 Architecture of Wireless Sensor Nodes........................................... 49
2.2 Components of Wireless Sensor Node Architecture...................... 59
vi • Wireless Sensor Networks
2.3 Common Wireless Sensor Node Architecture ............................... 61

2.4 Modular Sensor Node Architectures .............................................. 62
2.5 Pic Node Architecture ..................................................................... 65
2.6 IMote Node Architecture................................................................ 69
2.7 XYZ Node Architecture ................................................................... 71
2.8 Hogthrob Node Architecture .......................................................... 72
Summary .......................................................................................... 73
Questions.......................................................................................... 74
Further Reading .............................................................................. 75
References........................................................................................ 75
3 SOFTWARE ARCHITECTURE............................................. 77
3.1 Introduction to Software Architecture ........................................... 77
3.2 Operating System (OS) Requirements ........................................... 78
3.3 Wireless Sensor Network Characteristics ....................................... 78
3.4 Software Architecture Components................................................ 80
3.5 A Cluster-Based, Service-Oriented Architecture ........................... 83
3.6 Software Development For Sensor Nodes ..................................... 86
3.7 Tiny OS............................................................................................. 87
3.8 ZigBee .............................................................................................. 93
Summary ........................................................................................ 107
Questions........................................................................................ 108
Further Reading ............................................................................ 109
References...................................................................................... 109
4 WIRELESS BODY SENSOR NETWORKS ......................... 111

4.1 Introduction to Wireless Body Sensor Networks ......................... 111
4.2 Architecture of Body Sensor Networks ........................................ 112
4.3 Bio Signal Monitoring Using Wireless Sensor Networks ............. 118
4.4 Differences between Wide Scale WSNs and BSNs ..................... 124
4.5 Methodology for Development of Biomedical Signals
Acquisition and Monitoring Using WSNs .................................... 125
4.6 Wireless Sensor Networks for Health Monitoring ....................... 131
4.7 Wearable Computing ..................................................................... 134
4.8 Simulators ...................................................................................... 134
4.9 Ongoing Research Ideas in Medical ............................................. 135
Summary ........................................................................................ 135
Questions........................................................................................ 136
Contents • vii
Further Reading ............................................................................ 137

References...................................................................................... 137
5 UBIQUITOUS SENSOR NETWORKS ................................ 139

5.1 Ubiquitous Sensor Networks (USN)............................................. 139
5.2 Applications of USNs..................................................................... 142
5.3 Monitoring Volcanic Eruptions with a USN ................................. 145
5.4 WSNs on Regional Environmental Protection ............................. 146
5.5 The Development of USNs for a Rice Paddy
Crop Monitoring Application ........................................................ 151
5.6 WSNs in the Smart Grid ............................................................... 155
5.7 Smartwater Sensor Networks ........................................................ 160
5.8 Intelligent Transportation Using WSNs ....................................... 162
5.9 WSNs in Traffic Infrastructures .................................................... 165
5.10 WSNs in Smart Homes.................................................................. 166
5.11 Monitoring Systems for Structure................................................. 168
5.12 IP-WSN Based Integration System .............................................. 170
Summary ........................................................................................ 172
Questions........................................................................................ 173
Further Reading ............................................................................ 173
References...................................................................................... 174
6 UNDERWATER WIRELESS SENSOR NETWORKS

(UWSNs) ............................................................................... 175
6.1 Wireless Sensor Networks for Oceanographic Monitoring ......... 175
6.2 Aerial Wireless Sensor Networks for Oceanographic
Monitoring............................................................................................ 177
6.3 Underwater Acoustic Sensor Networks (UW-ASNs) ................... 186
6.4 Underwater Wireless Sensor Networks (UWSNs) ....................... 187
6.5 Challenges In Network Protocol ................................................... 198
6.6 Distinctions Between UWSNs And Ground-Based Sensor
Networks ........................................................................................ 202
6.7 Networking Architectures for UWSNs ......................................... 202
6.8 Water Quality Monitoring ............................................................. 205
6.9 Limitations of UWSNs .................................................................. 208
6.10 Research Challenges in UWSNs ................................................... 209
Summary ........................................................................................ 209
Questions........................................................................................ 210
viii • Wireless Sensor Networks
Further Reading ............................................................................ 211

References...................................................................................... 212
7 INTERNET OF THINGS WSNs .......................................... 213

7.1 An Introduction to the Internet of Things (IoT) .......................... 213
7.2 Context Awareness......................................................................... 215
7.3 Integrating WSNs with the Internet ............................................. 216
7.4 Architecture of the IoT for WSNs ................................................ 218
7.5 Gateway-Based Integration ........................................................... 223
7.6 The IoT and WSN Design Principles ........................................... 227
7.7 Big Data and the IoT in WSNS..................................................... 230
7.8 Challenges in the IoT WSNs ......................................................... 236
7.9 Simple Versus Embedded Control Gateways ............................... 237
Summary ........................................................................................ 242
Questions........................................................................................ 242
Further Reading ............................................................................ 243
References...................................................................................... 243
8 WIRELESS MULTIMEDIA SENSOR NETWORKS .......... 245

8.1 Introduction to Wireless Multimedia Sensor
Networks (WMSNs) ...................................................................... 245
8.2 Factors Influencing the Design of Multimedia
Sensor Networks ................................................................................. 249
8.3 Network Architecture of WMSNs ................................................ 252
8.4 WMSNs as Distributed Computer Vision Systems ...................... 258
8.5 Application Layer........................................................................... 259
8.6 Transport Layer.............................................................................. 261
8.7 Network Layer ............................................................................... 265
8.8 MAC Layer .................................................................................... 267
8.9 Physical Layer ................................................................................ 271
8.10 Cross-Layer Design ....................................................................... 272
8.11 Wireless Video Sensor Networks .................................................. 275
8.12 Three-Tier Architecture of Video Sensor Networks .................... 277
8.13 A Wireless Video Sensor Network for Autonomous
Coastal Sensing .............................................................................. 279
Summary ........................................................................................ 284
Questions........................................................................................ 284
Further Reading ............................................................................ 285
References...................................................................................... 285
Contents • ix
9 MOBILE AD HOC NETWORKS ........................................ 287

9.1 Wireless Ad Hoc Sensor Networks ............................................... 287
9.2 Mobile Ad Hoc Networks (MANET) ........................................... 291
9.3 Classification of Routing Protocols for MANETs ......................... 295
9.4 Security in Ad Hoc Networks........................................................ 300
9.5 Ad Hoc Networks and Internet Connectivity ............................... 304
9.6 Mobile Ad Hoc Networking for the Military ................................ 305
9.7 Vehicular Ad Hoc and Sensor Networks....................................... 309
9.8 Application of VANET................................................................... 314
9.9 Routing for VANET ....................................................................... 315
9.10 Security in VANET ........................................................................ 322
9.11 The VSN Architecture for Micro Climate Monitoring ................ 326
Summary ........................................................................................ 327
Questions........................................................................................ 328
Further Reading ............................................................................ 329
References...................................................................................... 329
10 ROUTING AND SECURITY IN WSNs ............................... 331

10.1 Algorithms for Wireless Sensor Networks .................................... 331
10.2 Routing Protocols .......................................................................... 338
10.3 Security in Wireless Sensor Networks .......................................... 345
10.4 Obstacles of Sensor Security ......................................................... 346
10.5 Security Requirements .................................................................. 349
10.6 Attacks ............................................................................................ 352
10.7 Defensive Measures ...................................................................... 357
Summary ........................................................................................ 376
Questions........................................................................................ 377
Further Reading ............................................................................ 378
References...................................................................................... 378
APPENDIX A ............................................................................. 379

APPENDIX B ............................................................................. 395
INDEX ....................................................................................... 399
PREFACE
Wireless sensor networks (WSN) are more and more frequently seen as the
solution to large scale tracking and monitoring applications. WSN provide a
bridge between the real physical and virtual worlds. They allow the ability
to observe the previously unobservable at a fine resolution over large scales.
The deployment of a large number of small, wireless sensors that can sample,
process, and deliver information to external systems (such as the satellite net-
work or the Internet), opens many novel application domains. They have a
wide range of potential applications to industry, science, transportation, civil
infrastructure, and security. The Internet of Things (IoT), which is technically
supported by WSN and other relevant technologies, is discussed. Wireless
Sensor Networks is an essential guide for anyone interested in wireless com-
munications for sensor networks, home networking, or device hacking.
This book covers a large number of topics encountered in the architecture,
application, and advancements of a wireless sensor network. It covers the
basic idea and advanced technologies in the field of sensor networking. It also
covers the research ideas behind any application of a sensor network.
Chapter 1 discusses the Wireless Sensor Network. Introductory points,
usage, applications, difficulties, basic requirements, and history of wireless
networks are covered. Wireless sensor network architecture, communication
protocols, and WSN sensors are introduced in this chapter.
Chapter 2 discusses different types of the node hardware architecture.
The components of a wireless sensor node architecture, modular sensor node
architecture, PIC node architecture, IMote node architecture, XYZ node
architecture, and Hogthrob node architecture are discussed.
Preface • xi
Chapter 3 discusses the software architectures of a wireless sensor

network. The operating system requirements, characteristics of WSN,
components of the software architecture, a cluster-based service-oriented
architecture, software development for sensor nodes, Tiny OS, and ZigBee
are covered.
Chapter 4 discusses the wireless body sensor network. The architecture
of wireless body sensor networks, bio signal monitoring using wireless sensor
networks, differences between a wireless sensor network and a body sensor
network, methodology for development of biomedical signals acquisition
and monitoring using WSN, health monitoring, wearable computing,
simulators for WSN and research ideas in medical field are discussed in
this chapter.
Chapter 5 discusses the ubiquitous sensor network. Applications of
USNs, monitoring volcanic eruptions with a ubiquitous sensor network,
wireless sensor networks on regional environmental protection, design and
the development of USNs for a paddy rice cropping monitoring application,
WSNs in the smart grid, smart water sensor networks, intelligent
transportation using WSNs, traffic infrastructures, WSNs in smart homes,
monitor system for structure and IP-WSN based integration systems are
discussed in this chapter.
Chapter 6 discusses underwater wireless sensor networks. WSNs for
oceanographic monitoring, aerial wireless sensor networks for oceanographic
monitoring, underwater acoustic sensor networks, underwater wireless
sensor networks, challenges in network protocol for ocean monitoring,
distinctions between UWSNs and ground-based sensor networks, networking
architectures for UWSNs, water quality monitoring, limitations of UWSNs,
and research challenges in UWSNs are discussed in this chapter.
Chapter 7 covers the integration of the Internet of Things with WSNs.
This chapter introduces the Internet of Things (IoT), context awareness,
integrating a WSN to the Internet, architecture of IoT for WSN, gateway-
based integration, IoT and WSN design principles, big data and IoT in a
WSN, challenges in IoT WSN, and finally, simple versus embedded control
gateways.
Chapter 8 discusses Wireless Multimedia Sensor Networks (WMSN).
This chapter discusses introduction of WMSNs, factors influencing the
design of multimedia sensor networks, network architecture of WMSN,
WMSNs as distributed computer vision systems, the application layer,
xii • Wireless Sensor Networks
transport layer, network layer, MAC layer, physical layer, cross-layer design,
wireless video sensor networks, three tier architecture of video sensor
networks and wireless video sensor network for autonomous coastal sensing.
Chapter 9 discusses the Mobile Ad hoc Networks (MANETs). Wireless
Ad hoc Sensor Networks, Mobile Ad hoc Networks, Classification of routing
protocols for MANETs, security in ad hoc networks, Ad Hoc Networks and
Internet Connectivity, Mobile Ad hoc networking for the military, Vehicular
ad hoc and Sensor Networks (VANET), applications of VANET, routing
for VANET, security in VANET, VSN architecture for micro-climate
monitoring are all discussed in this chapter.
Chapter 10 discusses routing and security in the WSN. Algorithms
for wireless sensor networks, routing protocols, security in a Wireless
Sensor Network, obstacles of sensor security, security requirements,
attacks, intrusion detection, and finally, defensive measures are discussed
in this chapter.
S. R. Vijayalakshmi
S. Muruganand
CHAPTER
1
WIRELESS SENSOR
NETWORKS
This chapter deals with the introduction of wireless sensor networks.
By the end of the chapter, one can learn the answers to simple questions
like: What is a wireless sensor network? What are the uses and
advantages of these network systems? Where could these devices be
implemented?
1.1 Introduction to Wireless Sensor Networks

A sensor is a small, lightweight device which measures in the environment
physical parameters such as temperature, pressure, relative humidity, and
many more. Sensor networks are highly distributed networks of wireless
sensor nodes, deployed in large numbers to monitor an environment or
system. Sensor nodes are used for sensing, processing, and communicat-
ing. The nodes then sense environmental changes and report them to other
nodes over flexible network architecture. Sensor nodes are great for deploy-
ment in hostile environments or over large geographical areas.
A wireless sensor network (WSN) is a collection of nodes organized into
a cooperative network. Each node consists of processing capability (one or
more microcontrollers, CPUs, or DSP chips), may contain multiple types
of memory (program, data, and flash memories), has an RF transceiver
(usually with a single omni-directional antenna), has a power source (e.g.,
batteries and solar cells), and can accommodate various sensors and actua-
tors. The nodes communicate wirelessly and often self-organize after being
deployed in an ad hoc fashion. Systems of thousands or even 10,000 nodes
are anticipated. Such systems can revolutionize the way we live and work.
2 • Wireless Sensor Networks
Currently, wireless sensor networks are beginning to be deployed at an

accelerated pace. It is not unreasonable to expect that in 10–15 years the
world will be covered with wireless sensor networks that can be accessed
via the Internet. This can be considered as the Internet becoming a physical
network, as shown in Figure 1.1. This new technology is exciting, with
unlimited potential for numerous application areas including environmental,
medical, military, transportation, entertainment, crisis management,
homeland defense, and smart spaces. The information collected by the
sensor nodes is transmitted to the base station. The base station is connected
to the Internet. So anyone can access the information anywhere at any time.
1.2 Usage of Sensor Networks

Sensor networks have been useful in a variety of domains. The primary
domains in which sensors are deployed are as follows:
Environmental Observation
Sensor networks can be used to monitor environmental changes. An exam-
ple could be water pollution detection in a lake that is located near a factory
that uses chemical substances. Sensor nodes could be randomly deployed
in unknown and hostile areas and relay the exact origin of a pollutant to a
centralized authority to take appropriate measures to limit the spreading of
pollution. Other examples include forest fire detection, air pollution, and
rainfall observation in agriculture.
Internet
Base Station Base Station
Sensor Fields
Sensor Nodes
FIGURE 1.1 Accessing WSNs through the Internet.

Wireless Sensor Networks • 3
Military Monitoring
The military uses sensor networks for battlefield surveillance; sensors could
monitor vehicular traffic, track the position of the enemy, or even safeguard
the equipment of the side deploying sensors.
Building Monitoring
Sensors can also be used in large buildings or factories to monitor climate
changes. Thermostats and temperature sensor nodes are deployed all over
the building’s area. In addition, sensors could be used to monitor vibrations
that could damage the structure of a building.
Healthcare
Sensors can be used in biomedical applications to improve the quality of
the provided care. Sensors are implanted in the human body to monitor
medical problems like cancer and help patients maintain their health.
1.3 Applications of WSNs

The following are the some of the applications of wireless sensor networks.
But they are not limited to these applications. Researchers in this field will
introduce new application areas in the future.
• Constant monitoring and detection of specific events
• Military, battlefield surveillance
• Forest fire and flood detection
• Habitat exploration of animals
• Patient monitoring
• Home appliances
• Disaster relief operations
• Intelligent buildings (or bridges)
• Reducing energy wastage by proper humidity, ventilation, air
conditioning, heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning (HVAC)
control
• Measurements about room occupancy, temperature, air flow, etc.
• Monitoring mechanical stress after earthquakes
• Machine surveillance and preventive maintenance

• Embedding sensing/control functions into places no cable has gone
before, e.g., tire pressure monitoring
• Precision agriculture
• Bringing out fertilizer/pesticides/irrigation only where needed
• Medicine and health care
• Post-operative or intensive care
• Long-term surveillance of chronically ill patients or the elderly
The following are brief discussions of some of the application areas.
Military Applications
Sensor networks can provide variety of services to the military and air forces
like information collection, battlefield surveillance, intrusion detection, and
attack detection. Application sensor networks have quite an advantage over
other networks, because enemy attacks can damage or destroy some of the
nodes, but node failure in WSN doesn’t affect the whole network. Possible
uses of WSN in the military are:
1. Intrusion Detection: Sensor networks can be used as a two-phase
intrusion detection system. Instead of using mines, intrusion can be
detected by establishing sensor networks in that area. Mines are dan-
gerous to civilians, so instead sensor nodes sense the intrusion and
alarm the army. The response to prevent intrusion can now be decided
by the military.
2. Enemy Tracking and Target Classification: Moving objects with
significant metallic content can be detected using specially designed
sensors, so enemies can be tracked and civilians are ignored. This
system especially helps in detecting armed soldiers and vehicles.
3. Battlefield Surveillance: Critical areas and borders can be closely mon-
itored using sensor networks to obtain information about any enemy
activity in that area. The quick gathering of information provides time
for a quick response.
4. Battlefield Damage Assessment: Sensor networks can be deployed after
the battle or attacks to gather information about damage assessment.
5. Detection of NBC Attacks: Sensor networks can be used as a Nuclear,

Biological, and Chemical warning system. If any nuclear, biological, or
chemical agents can be detected by sensors, an embedded alert system
can now send a warning message. It provides the military critical
response time to check the situation and prevent possible attacks,
which can save lives of many.
6. Targeting System: Sensors can be embedded in weapons. Exact infor-
mation about the target, like distance and angle, can be collected and
sent to the shooter so sensors can collaborate with weapons for better
target assessment.
Applications for Automobiles

Sensors can even be employed in vehicles, which provides an advance
tracking mechanism for vehicles as well as allowing police to track stolen
vehicles. Applications of WSN for vehicles are:
1. Detecting and Monitoring Car Thefts: Sensor nodes are being de-
ployed to detect and identify threats within a geographic region and
report these threats to remote end users by the Internet for analysis.
2. Vehicle Tracking and Detection: Sensor nodes connected to WSNs can
be embedded in vehicle designs, so the vehicle can be tracked with the
help of sensor networks.
3. Traffic Control: Sensor networks have been used for vehicle traffic
monitoring and control for quite a while. Most traffic intersections
have either overhead or buried sensors to detect vehicles and control
traffic lights. Furthermore, video cameras are frequently used to mon-
itor road segments with heavy traffic, with the video sent to human
operators at central locations.
Industrial Applications
Commercial industry has long been interested in taking advantage of sens-
ing as a means of lowering cost and improving machine performance and
maintainability.
1. Machine Health Monitoring: Wireless sensor networks have been
developed as a condition-based maintenance (CBM) solution for
machinery. In wired systems, the cost of wiring limits the installation
of enough sensors. Machine “health” is monitored through the
determination of vibration or wear and lubrication levels. WSNs enable
the insertion of sensors into regions that are inaccessible by humans,

like rotating machinery, or hazardous or restricted areas.
2. Monitoring Industrial Environments: Wireless sensors are used for
environmental condition monitoring in industries, such as monitoring
the level of water in overflow tanks in nuclear power plants and the
temperature inside refrigerators.
3. Managing Inventory Control: Each item in a warehouse may have a
sensor node attached to it. The end users can find out the exact loca-
tion of the item with the help of sensor and tally the number of items
in the same category stored in the database.
4. Interactive Museums: In the future, places like museums will become
alive with the help of sensor networks. Children will be able to interact
with objects in museums to learn more about them and the objects will
be able to respond to their touch and speech with the help of sensors.
Based on the specific requirements of industrial production, the IWSN
applications can be classified into three groups:
1. Environmental Sensing: This group generally represents the
widest field of WSN applications nowadays. IWSN applications for
environmental sensing cover the problems of air and water (together
with waste water) pollution, but cover production material pollution
monitoring as well. Furthermore, in hazardous environments, there
are numerous needs for fire, flood, or landslide sensing. Finally,
security issues arise in markets with competing products and with
service providers, where IWSNs are used for point of interest, area,
and barrier monitoring.
2. Condition Monitoring: This group generally covers the problems
of structural condition monitoring, providing both structure health
information (the condition of the buildings, construction, bridges,
supply routes, etc.) and machine condition monitoring including
possible automatic maintenance. Therefore, this group of IWSN
applications is vital for production in all branches of industry.
3. Process Automation: The last group of applications provides the users
with information regarding resources for the production and service
provision (including the materials, current stock, and supply chain
status, as well as the manpower included in the industrial process).
Finally, one of the most important issues from the user perspective
is the production performance monitoring, evaluation, and improve-
ment that are achieved through IWSNs.
1.4 Difficulties in WSN Research

Since a wireless sensor network is a distributed real-time system, a natural
question is how many solutions from distributed and real-time systems can
be used in these new systems? Unfortunately, very little prior work can be
applied, and new solutions are necessary in all areas of the system. The
main reason is that the set of assumptions underlying previous work has
changed dramatically. Most past distributed systems research has assumed
that the systems are wired, have unlimited power, are not real-time, have
user interfaces such as screens and mice, have a fixed set of resources, treat
each node in the system as very important, and are location independent.
In contrast, for wireless sensor networks, the systems are wireless, have
scarce power, are real-time, utilize sensors and actuators as interfaces, have
dynamically changing sets of resources, aggregate behavior, and are loca-
tion dependent. Many wireless sensor networks also utilize minimal capac-
ity devices, which places a further strain on the ability to use past solutions.
The following are wireless network concerns.
1. Interference Issues
Radio frequency (RF) interference can lead to disastrous problems
with wireless deployments. With 2.4 GHz wireless, there are several
sources of interfering signals, including microwave ovens, cordless
phones, Bluetooth enabled devices, FHSS wireless LANs, and neigh-
boring wireless LANs.
2. Power Management
Electricity in batteries is a limited resource. It is also a concern in the
case of wireless networks.
3. System Interoperability
The ability of two or more systems or components to exchange infor-
mation and to use the information that has been exchanged is also a
difficult process.
4. Security Concerns
Wireless security is the prevention of unauthorized access or damage
to computers using wireless networks.
5. Security Threats
Radio waves can easily penetrate walls. One can passively retrieve the
radio signal without being noticed (Figure 1.2). Someone could mali-
ciously jam a wireless network and create electronic damage.
Building
Radio-
based
Wireless
LAN
Radio waves penetrate Passive reception

building walls of radio waves from
outside the building
FIGURE 1.2 The passive reception of wireless network data.
6. Installation Issues
Wireless coverage as a contour is shown in Figure 1.3. So, two
different interferences are Intra-system interference (e.g., between its
own access points) and Inter-system interference ( e.g., from external
Bluetooth, which is also on 2.4 GHz).
7. Health Risks
So far, there is no conclusive answer!! Radio is safer than cellular phones!!
A wireless network is even safer, as it operates at 50~100 milliwatts,
compared to 600mw~3w of cellular phones.
8. Wireless Standards
The two wireless standards used by WSNs are 802.15.4 and Zigbee.
The characteristics of these protocols are as follows:
• They are low-power protocols
• Performance is an issue
• Maximum distance is around 100 m
FIGURE 1.3 The resulting radiation pattern of an omni-directional antenna within an

office building.
The following are the channels and their bit rates. Channels are:
• 868.0-868.6MHz ➝ 1 channel (Europe)
• 902.0-928.0MHz ➝ 10 channels (USA)
• 2.40-2.48GHz ➝ 16 channels (worldwide)
Bit Rates are:

• 868.0-868.6MHz ➝ 20/100/250 Kb/s
• 902.0-928.0MHz ➝ 40/250 Kb/s
• 2.40-2.48GHz ➝ 250 Kb/s
1.5 Basic Requirements for WSNs

The following are the basic requirements for wireless sensor networks:
• Low Power Consumption
• Ease of Use
• Scalability
• Responsiveness
• Range
• Bi-Directional Communication
• Reliability
• Small Module Form Factor
• Mobility Example, talking on a cordless phone vs. cord phone
• Installation in Difficult-to-Wire Areas: rivers, freeways, old buildings
• Avoidance of Hazardous Materials as with drilling
• Unaffected by right-of-way restrictions in some cities to dig in the ground
• Reduced Installation Time: It may take months to receive right-of-
way approvals
• Increased Reliability: cable vs. cable-less
• Long-Term Savings: never need re-cabling
1.6 History of Wireless Networks

Indians used fire and smoke in ancient days. Later, a messenger on horse-
back in the sixteenth century carried the information. Telephone lines in
the nineteenth century were used for voice communication. Now networks
are used. Traditional networks (Local Area Network, Metropolitan Area
Network, and Wide Area Network) have provided great convenience in
offices, hotel rooms, or homes. But one cannot utilize the service unless
the people are physically connected to a LAN or a telephone line. In 1980s,
amateur radio hobbyists built TNCs (terminal node controllers) to interface
“ham” radio equipment and their computers (Figure 1.4).
Radio Waves
Pocket Data transmission
Antenna
RS232 Terminal Audio
UHF / VHF
Node
Digital Ham Radio
Controller Analog
Signal Signal
PC
FIGURE 1.4 Ham radio terminal node controllers.
In 1985, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) authorized the

use of ISM bands for Industrial, Scientific, and Medical for commercial
development. ISM bands are equal to 902MHz and 5.85 GHz. ISM is
very attractive to vendors because no FCC license is required. In 1980s,
small-size computers started to appear. Laptops, palmtops, Personal Digital
Assistants, and Wireless LAN products appeared. In wireless LAN, the
IEEE 802.11 standard was finalized in July 1997. IEEE 802.11a, b, e, g, i,
r, etc. wireless WAN Packet radio networks (e.g., RAM) were implemented.
Historical Development and Standards

Much of this information contains a thorough summary of communication
network standards, topologies, and components.
Ethernet
The Ethernet was developed in the mid 1970s by Xerox, DEC, and Intel,
and was standardized in 1979. The Institute of Electrical and Electronics
Engineers (IEEE) released the official Ethernet standard IEEE 802.3
in 1983. The Fast Ethernet operates at ten times the speed of the regular
Ethernet, and was officially adopted in 1995. It introduces new features such
as full-duplex operation and auto-negotiation. Both these standards use IEEE
802.3 variable-length frames having between 64 and 1514-byte packets.
Token Ring
In 1984 IBM introduced the 4Mbit/s token ring network. The system was
of high quality and robust, but its cost caused it to fall behind the Ethernet
in popularity. IEEE standardized the token ring with the IEEE 802.5
specification. The Fiber Distributed Data Interface (FDDI) specifies

a 100Mbit/s token-passing, dual-ring LAN that uses fiber optic cable. It
was developed by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) in
the mid-1980s, and its speed far exceeded current capabilities of both the
Ethernet and IEEE 802.5.
Gigabit Ethernet
The Gigabit Ethernet Alliance was founded in 1996, and the Gigabit
Ethernet standards were ratified in 1999, specifying a physical layer that
uses a mixture of technologies from the original Ethernet and fiber optic
cable technologies from FDDI.
Client-Server
Client-Server networks became popular in the late 1980s with the replace-
ment of large mainframe computers by networks of personal computers.
Application programs for distributed computing environments are essen-
tially divided into two parts: the client or front end, and the server or back
end. The user’s PC is the client and the more powerful server machines
interface to the network.
Peer-to-Peer Networking
Peer-to-peer networking architectures have all machines with equivalent
capabilities and responsibilities. There is no server, and computers connect
to each other, usually using a bus topology, to share files, printers, Internet
access, and other resources.
Peer-to-Peer Computing
Peer-to-peer computing is a significant evolutionary step over P2P
networking. Here, computing tasks are split between multiple computers,
with the result being assembled for further consumption. P2P computing
has sparked a revolution for the Internet Age and has obtained considerable
success in a very short time. The Napster MP3 music file sharing applica-
tion went live in September 1999, and attracted more than 20 million users
by mid-2000.
802.11 Wireless Local Area Network

IEEE ratified the IEEE 802.11 specification in 1997 as a standard for
WLAN. Current versions of 802.11 (i.e., 802.11b) support transmission up
to 11Mbit/s. WiFi, as it is known, is useful for fast and easy networking of
PCs, printers, and other devices in a local environment, that is, the home.
Current PCs and laptops as purchased have the hardware to support WiFi.
Purchasing and installing a WiFi router and receivers is within the budget
and capability of home PC enthusiasts.
Bluetooth
Bluetooth was initiated in 1998 and standardized by the IEEE as Wireless
Personal Area Network (WPAN) specification IEEE 802.15. Bluetooth is
a short range RF technology aimed at facilitating communication of elec-
tronic devices between each other and with the Internet, allowing for data
synchronization that is transparent to the user. Supported devices include
PCs, laptops, printers, joysticks, keyboards, mice, cell phones, PDAs, and
consumer products. Mobile devices are also supported. Discovery protocols
allow new devices to be hooked up easily to the network. Bluetooth uses
the unlicensed 2.4 GHz band and can transmit data up to 1Mbit/s, can pen-
etrate solid non-metal barriers, and has a nominal range of 10m that can be
extended to 100m. A master station can service up to 7 simultaneous slave
links. Forming a network of these networks, for example, a piconet, can
allow one master to service up to 200 slaves. Currently, Bluetooth devel-
opment kits can be purchased from a variety of suppliers, but the systems
generally require a great deal of time, effort, and knowledge for program-
ming and debugging. Forming piconets has not yet been streamlined and
is unduly difficult.
Home RF
Home RF was initiated in 1998 and has similar goals to Bluetooth for
WPAN. Its goal is shared data/voice transmission. It interfaces with the
Internet as well as the Public Switched Telephone Network. It uses the
2.4 GHz band and has a range of 50 m, suitable for home and yard. A maxi-
mum of 127 nodes can be accommodated in a single network.
IrDA (Infrared Data Association)

IrDA (Infrared Data Association) is a WPAN technology that has a short-
range, narrowtransmission-angle beam suitable for aiming and selective
reception of signals.
ZigBee
ZigBee takes full advantage of a powerful physical radio specified by IEEE
802.15.4. ZigBee adds logical network, security, and application software.
ZigBee continues to work closely with the IEEE to ensure an integrated

and complete solution for the market. The features are
• Low power consumption
• Low cost
• Low offered message throughput
• Supports large network orders (<= 65k nodes)
• Low to no QoS (Quality of Service) guarantees
• Flexible protocol design suitable for many applications
Wireless WAN vs. LAN

The following table (Table 1.1) compares Wireless WAN with LAN.
Table 1.1 Comparison between Wireless WAN and Wireless LAN
Wireless WAN Wireless LAN
transmission speed: 10K-1M ubiquitous transmission speed: more than 1Mbps

coverage roaming speed: vehicular real- coverage: a few hundred meters roaming
time voice supported: circuit-switching speed: pedestrian packet-switching
1.7 Electromagnetic Spectrum

The spectrum is a range of electromagnetic radiation, as shown in Figure 1.5,
and bands are spectrum parts, as given in Table 1.2.
Bandwidth increase, range decreases
Visible light
Microwaves
Ultraviolet Gamma Rays
Radio waves Infrared X-Rays
10
6
10
7 8
10 10
9
1010 1011 1012 1013 1014 1015 1016 1017 1018 1019 1020 1021
Frequency(Hz)
FIGURE 1.5 The electromagnetic spectrum.
Table 1.2 The Various Radio Bands and Their Common Use
Frequency Band name Applications
<3 KHz Extremely Low Frequency (ELF) Submarine

communications
3 KHz - 30 KHz Very Low frequency (VLF)
Marine
30 KHz - 300 KHz Low Frequency (LF) or Long Wave (LW) communications
300 KHz - 3 MHz Medium Frequency (MF) or Medium AM radio
3 MHZ - 30 MHz Wave (MW) AM radio
30 MHz - 300 MHz High Frequency (HF) or Short Wave AM radio
300 MHz - 3 GHz (SW) Very High Frequency (VHF) FM Radio-TV
Ultra High Frequency (UHF) TV - cellular
telephony
3 GHz - 30 GHZ Super High Frequency (SHF) Extra
Satellites
30 GHZ - 300GHZ High Frequency (EHF)
Satellites - radars
HF band enables worldwide transmission. HF signals are reflected off the

ionosphere and thus can travel very large distances. Radio spectrum for
wireless technology is shown in Figure 1.6. The separate frequencies are
“extremely low,” “very low,” “medium,” “high,” “very high,” “ultra high,”
“microwave region,” “infrared region,” “visible light region,” and “X-ray.”
AM 550-1650 KHz
Audio FM 88-108 MHz
TV
ELF VLF LF MF HF VHF UHF MW IR VL UV XR
100 103 106 109 1012 1015 1018Hz

1Km 1m 1 cm 1 μm 1 nm
Mobile Radio Paging Cellular Cordless PCS
FIGURE 1.6 The radio spectrum.

Audio frequency range is 20 Hz to 20 KHz. The AM radio stations use

1 MHz. The FM and TV use 100 MHz. Cell sizes can vary from tens of
meters to thousands of kilometers. Data rates may range from 0.1 K to
50 Mbps (Figure 1.7).
10,000
1000 LANs
Data Rate (Kbps)
100
DECT
10
PCS Packet data Satellite
1 Cellular
CT-X
0.1 Paging
10m 100m 1Km 10Km 1000s Km

Cell Size
FIGURE 1.7 Relationship of networks.
Examples:
LAN: high rate (11 M), small range (50 m).
Satellite: low rate (10 K), extremely large range (1000 Km).
Paging: very low rate (1 Kbps), large cell (10s of Km).
Examples:
Packet Radio Networks: cell size can be 10s of km
data rate: 10 to 20 Kbps
CT-2 cordless telephony standard): cell size: 100 meters
date rate: order of 10 Kbps
Personal communication service (PCS): cell size: 100 meters to 10s of km
data rate: order of 100 Kbps
Smaller cell size implies higher data rate, less power consumption, more
handovers, and more frequency reuse.
There are 3 approaches.

1. ISM band
2. Narrow band
3. Spread spectrum
1. ISM Bands
In 1985, the FCC modified part 15 to stimulate the use of wireless networks.
ISM stands for Industrial, Scientific, and Medical. It is unlicensed and one
can use freely install and move. Only 2.4 GHz is the world-accepted ISM
band. 902 MHz is easier in manufacturing. Figure 1.8 shows the Industrial,
Scientific and Medical (ISM) frequency bands.
902 MHz
2.4 GHz 2.4 GHz
5.7 GHz
FIGURE 1.8 ISM spectrum availability.
2. Narrow Band Modulation

It concentrates all transmission power in a narrow range of frequencies.
Efficient use of the radio spectrum will save bandwidth. Ex: For example,
television, AM, and FM.
Advantage
For long-distance transmission (e.g., metropolitan area).
Disadvantages
Noise can easily corrupt the signals. It is necessary to obtain FCC (Federal
Communications Commission) licenses to coordinate use.
3. Spread Spectrum Modulation

Spread spectrum modulation is defined as “spreading” a signal’s power over
a wider band of frequency. Figure 1.9 shows narrow band versus spread
spectrum modulation.
Amplitude Narrow band signal
Spread signal
spectrum
Frequency
FIGURE 1.9 Narrow band versus spread spectrum modulation.
Spread Spectrum
The disadvantage of this is that it contradicts with the goal of conserving
bandwidth. The advantage is that it is less susceptible to electrical noise
(especially from narrow band sources). In World War II, the U.S. Army
used spread spectrum to avoid hostile jamming (invented by Hedy Lamarr,
an actress). To spread a signal, there are two ways:
1. Direct sequence (DSSS)
2. Frequency hopping (FHSS)
Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum (DSSS)

It uses a bit sequence to represent “zero” and “one” as given in Figure 1.10.
It is also referred to as “chipping code.” Longer chipping codes are more
resilient to noise. The minimum length is equal to 10 (by FCC). IEEE
802.11 uses 11 chips per data bit.
DSSS is a transmission technology used in Local Area Wireless Network
transmissions where a data signal at the sending station is combined with a
higher data rate bit sequence, or chipping code, that divides the user data
according to a spreading ratio. The chipping code is a redundant bit pattern
for each bit that is transmitted, which increases the signal’s resistance to
interference. If one or more bits in the pattern are damaged during trans-
mission, the original data can be recovered due to the redundancy of the
transmission.
Chipping Code: 0 = 11101100011

1 = 00010011100
Data Stream : 101
Transmitted Sequence:
00010011100 11101100011 00010011100
1 0 1
FIGURE 1.10 The operation of the direct sequence spread spectrum.
Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum (FHSS)

Data is modulated by carrier signals that hop from frequency to frequency
as a function of time, over a wide band of frequencies. Hopping Code is
used to determine the order of hopping frequencies. The receiver must
“listen” to incoming signals at the right time at the right frequency. FCC
regulation is at least 75 frequencies, with a maximum dwell time of 400ms.
The advantage is it is very resilient to noise. Orthogonal hopping codes are
sets of hopping codes that never use the same frequencies at the same time,
as in Figure 1.11 (they can be adjusted online by software). They allow mul-
tiple wireless LANs to coexist.
Time Hopping Pattern CABED
C
Frequency
2.40 2.41 2.42 2.43 2.44 2.45 (GHz)
FIGURE 1.11 A frequency hopping spread spectrum.

FIGURE 1.12 Number of people per computer vs. year.
FHSS is the repeated switching of frequencies during radio transmis-

sion, often to minimize the effectiveness of “electronic warfare”; that is,
the unauthorized interception or jamming of telecommunications. Spread
spectrum enables a signal to be transmitted across a frequency band that
is much wider than the minimum bandwidth required by the informa-
tion signal. The transmitter “spreads” the energy, originally concentrated
in narrowband, across a number of frequency band channels on a wider
electromagnetic spectrum. Benefits include improved privacy, decreased
narrowband interference, and increased signal capacity.
Figure 1.12 shows the number of people per computer. The number of
people using the computer is consistently increasing.
1.8 Communication Networks

To understand and be able to implement sensor networks, the basic con-
cepts of communication networks are sufficient.
Network Topology
The basic issue in communication networks is the transmission of messages
to achieve a prescribed message throughput (Quantity of Service) and
Quality of Service (QoS). QoS can be specified in terms of message delay,
message due dates, bit error rates, packet loss, economic cost of transmis-
sion, transmission power, and so on. Depending on QoS, the installation
environment, economic considerations, and the application, one of several
basic network topologies may be used.
A communication network is composed of nodes, each of which has com-

puting power and can transmit and receive messages over communica-
tion links, wireless or cabled. The basic network topologies are shown in
Figure 1.13 and include fully connected, mesh, star, ring, tree, and bus. A
single network may consist of several interconnected subnets of different
topologies. Networks are further classified as Local Area Networks (LAN),
for example, inside one building, or Wide Area Networks (WAN), for exam-
ple, between buildings.
Fully Connected Networks

Fully connected networks suffer from problems of NP-complexity, because
as additional nodes are added, the number of links increases exponentially.
Therefore, for large networks, the routing problem is computationally
intractable even with the availability of large amounts of computing power.
Backup Ring
Primary Ring
Self - Healing Ring
Star Ring Bus
Tree Fully Connected Mesh
FIGURE 1.13 Basic network topologies.

Mesh Networks
Mesh networks are regularly distributed networks that generally allow
transmission only to a node’s nearest neighbors. The nodes in these net-
works are generally identical, so that mesh nets are also referred to as peer-
to-peer (Figure 1.13) nets. Mesh nets can be good models for large-scale
networks of wireless sensors that are distributed over a geographic region,
for example, personnel or vehicle security surveillance systems. Note that
the regular structure reflects the communications topology; the actual
geographic distribution of the nodes need not be a regular mesh. Since
there are generally multiple routing paths between nodes, these nets are
robust to failure of individual nodes or links. An advantage of mesh nets
is that, although all nodes may be identical and have the same computing
and transmission capabilities, certain nodes can be designated as “group
leaders” that take on additional functions. If a group leader is disabled,
another node can then take over these duties.
Star Topology
All nodes of the star topology are connected to a single hub node. The
hub requires greater message handling, routing, and decision-making
capabilities than the other nodes. If a communication link is cut, it only
affects one node. However, if the hub is incapacitated, the network is
destroyed.
Ring Topology
In the ring topology all nodes perform the same function and there is
no leader node. Messages generally travel around the ring in a single
direction. However, if the ring is cut, all communication is lost. The
self-healing ring network (SHR) shown has two rings and is more fault
tolerant.
Bus Topology
In the bus topology, messages are broadcast on the bus to all nodes. Each
node checks the destination address in the message header and processes
the messages addressed to it. The bus topology is passive in that each node
simply listens for messages and is not responsible for retransmitting any
messages.
Vehicle Monitoring
Animal
Monitoring Medical Monitoring
Machine
Monitoring
Wireless
Data Collection Wireless Sensor
Networks
Wireless BSC
sensor Base Station
Controller
Ship Monitoring Preprocessing
BST Management
Data Acquisition Center
Network (Data base large storage analysis)
Data
Distribution
Distribution
Network
Online Printer Trans Server
Roving Monitoring mitter
Human
Roving Monitor
Human Wireless Wire land
PDA
Monitor (WiFi,Bluetooth, (Etherland WLAN
PDA Cellular Network Optical)
CDMA GSM)
Anywhere
anytime to
access
Note Cellular
book Phone PC
FIGURE 1.14 Complexity of wireless sensor networks.
Figure 1.14 shows the complexity of wireless sensor networks, which gener-
ally consist of a data acquisition network and a data distribution network,
monitored and controlled by a management center. The plethora of avail-
able technologies makes even the selection of components difficult, let
alone the design of a consistent, reliable, robust overall system. So, the net-
work protocols are also different for wireless.
1.9 Communication Protocols and Routing

Some basics that are useful for understanding sensor nets are presented
here.
Headers
Each message generally has a header identifying its source node, destina-
tion node, length of the data field, and other information. This is used by
the nodes in proper routing of the message. In encoded messages, parity
bits may be included. In packet routing networks, each message is bro-
ken into packets of fixed length. The packets are transmitted separately
through the network and then reassembled at the destination. The fixed
packet length makes for easier routing and satisfaction of QoS. Generally,
voice communications use circuit switching, while data transmissions use
packet routing.
In addition to the information content messages, in some protocols
(e.g., FDDI) the nodes transmit special frames to report and identify fault
conditions. This can allow network reconfiguration for fault recovery. Other
special frames might include route discovery packets or ferrets that flow
through the network, for example, to identify shortest paths, failed links, or
transmission cost information. In some schemes, the ferret returns to the
source and reports the best path for message transmission.
When a node desires to transmit a message, handshaking protocols
with the destination node are used to improve reliability. The source and
destination might transmit alternately as follows: request to send, ready to
receive, send message, message received. Handshaking is used to guaran-
tee QoS and to retransmit messages that were not properly received.
Switching
Most computer networks use a store-and-forward switching technique to
control the flow of information. Then, each time a packet reaches a node, it
is completely buffered in local memory, and transmitted as a whole. More
sophisticated switching techniques include wormhole, which splits the
message into smaller units known as flow control units or flits. The header
flit determines the route. As the header is routed, the remaining flits follow
it in pipeline fashion. This technique currently achieves the lowest message
latency. Another popular switching scheme is virtual-cut-through. Here,
when the header arrives at a node, it is routed without waiting for the rest
of the packet. Packets are buffered either in software buffers in memory or
in hardware buffers, and various sorts of buffers are used including edge
buffers, central buffers, and so forth.
Multiple Access Protocols

When multiple nodes desire to transmit, protocols are needed to avoid collisions
and lost data. In the ALOHA scheme, first used in the 1970s at the University
of Hawaii, a node simply transmits a message when it desires. If it receives an
acknowledgment, all is well. If not, the node waits a random time and re-trans-
mits the message. In Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA), different
nodes have different carrier frequencies. Since frequency resources are divided,
this decreases the bandwidth available for each node. FDMA also requires addi-
tional hardware and intelligence at each node. In Code Division Multiple Access
(CDMA), a unique code is used by each node to encode its messages. This
increases the complexity of the transmitter and the receiver. In Time Division
Multiple Access (TDMA), the RF link is divided on a time axis, with each node
being given a predetermined time slot it can use for communication. This
decreases the sweep rate, but a major advantage is that TDMA can be imple-
mented in software. All nodes require accurate, synchronized clocks for TDMA.
Open Systems Interconnection Reference Model (OSI/RM)

The International Standards Organization (ISO) OSI/RM architecture speci-
fies the relationship between messages transmitted in a communication network
and applications. The development of this open standard has encouraged the
adoption by different developers of standardized compatible systems interfaces.
Figure 1.15 shows the seven layers of OSI/RM. But in wireless not all 7 layers
are used. The layers used in wireless systems are discussed in section 1.10.
User Layer User

D Application 7 Application
A
T Presentation 6 Presentation
A Session 5 Session
Segments Transport 4 Transport
Packers Network 3 Network
Frames Datalink 2 Datalink
Bits Physical 1 Physical
Transmission
Medium
FIGURE 1.15 The OSI Reference Model.

Each layer is self-contained so that it can be modified without unduly affect-

ing other layers. The Transport Layer provides error detection and correc-
tion. Routing and flow control are performed in the Network Layer. The
Physical Layer represents the actual hardware communication link inter-
connections. The Applications Layer represents programs run by users.
Routing
Since a distributed network has multiple nodes and services many mes-
sages, and each node is a shared resource, many decisions must be made.
There may be multiple paths from the source to the destination. Therefore,
message routing is an important topic. The main performance measures
affected by the routing scheme are throughput (quantity of service) and
average packet delay (quality of service). Routing schemes should also
avoid both deadlock and livelock. Routing methods can be fixed (i.e., pre-
planned), adaptive, centralized, distributed, broadcast, and so on. Perhaps
the simplest routing scheme is the token ring. Here, a simple topology and a
straightforward fixed protocol result in very good reliability and precomput-
able QoS. A token passes continuously around a ring topology. When a node
desires to transmit, it captures the token and attaches the message. As the
token passes, the destination reads the header and captures the message. In
some schemes, it attaches a “message received” signal to the token, which is
then received by the original source node. Then, the token is released and
can accept further messages. The token ring is a completely decentralized
scheme that effectively uses TDMA. Though this scheme is very reliable,
one can see that it results in a waste of network capacity. The token must
pass once around the ring for each message. Therefore, there are various
modifications of this scheme, including using several tokens, and so forth.
Fixed routing schemes often use Routing Tables that dictate the next
node to be routed to, given the current message location and the destina-
tion node. Routing tables can be very large for large networks, and cannot
take into account real-time effects such as failed links, nodes with backed-
up queues, or congested links.
Adaptive routing schemes depend on the current network status and
can take into account various performance measures, including cost of
transmission over a given link, congestion of a given link, reliability of a path,
and time of transmission. They can also account for link or node failures.
Routing algorithms can be based on various network analysis and graph
theoretic concepts in computer science (e.g., A-star tree search) or in
operations research, including shortest-route, maximal flow, and minimum-

span problems. Routing is closely associated with dynamic programming
and the optimal control problem in feedback control theory. Shortest path
routing schemes find the shortest path from a given node to the destination
node. If the cost, instead of the link length, is associated with each link,
these algorithms can also compute minimum cost routes. These algorithms
can be centralized (find the shortest path from a given node to all other
nodes) or decentralized (find the shortest path from all nodes to a given
node). There are certain well-defined algorithms for shortest path routing,
including the efficient Dijkstra algorithm, which has polynomial complexity.
The Bellman-Ford algorithm finds the path with the least number of hops.
Deadlock and Livelock

Large-scale communication networks contain cycles (circular paths) of
nodes. Moreover, each node is a shared resource that can handle multiple
messages flowing along different paths. Therefore, communication nets
are susceptible to deadlock, wherein all nodes in a specific cycle have full
buffers and are waiting for each other. Then, no node can transmit because
no node can get free buffer space, so all transmission in that cycle comes
to a halt. Livelock, on the other hand, is the condition wherein a message
is continually transmitted around the network and never reaches its
destination. Livelock is a deficiency of some routing schemes that route the
message to alternate links when the desired links are congested, without
taking into account that the message should be routed closer to its final
destination. Many routing schemes are available for routing with deadlock
and livelock avoidance.
Flow Control
In queuing networks, each node has an associated queue or buffer that can
stack messages. In such networks, flow control and resource assignment are
important. The objectives of flow control are to protect the network from
problems related to overload and speed mismatches, and to maintain QoS,
efficiency, fairness, and freedom from deadlock. If a given node A has high
priority, its messages might be preferentially routed in every case, so that
competing nodes are choked off as the traffic of A increases. Fair routing
schemes avoid this. There are several techniques for flow control: in buffer
management, certain portions of the buffer space are assigned for certain
purposes. In choke packet schemes, any node sensing congestion sends
choke packets to other nodes telling them to reduce their transmissions.
Isarithmic schemes have a fixed number of “permits” for the network. A

message can be sent only if a permit is available. In window or kanban
schemes, the receiver grants “credits” to the sender only if it has free buffer
space. Upon receiving a credit, the sender can transmit a message. In
Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) schemes, a source linearly increases
its transmission rate as long as all its sent messages are acknowledged for.
When it detects a lost packet, it exponentially decreases its transmission
rate. Since lost packets depend on congestion, TCP automatically decreases
transmissions when congestion is detected.
1.10 Wireless Network Architecture

The general functions of networks are bit pipes of data, MAC for shar-
ing of a common medium, routing, synchronization, and error control.
Figure 1.16 shows the wireless layers needed.
End User End User
A B
Upper Upper
Layer Layer
Protocols Protocols
Network Network
Layer Layer
Wireless Data Link Wireless Data Link
WANS Wireless Layer Network Layer
LANS/
MANS Physical Physical
Layer Layer
FIGURE 1.16 Wireless layers for LAN/MAN/WAN.
Network Models
A wireless sensor network consists of hundreds or thousands of low cost
nodes which could either have a fixed location or be randomly deployed
to monitor the environment. Due to their small size, they have a number
of limitations. Sensors usually communicate with each other using a multi
hop approach. The flowing of data ends at special nodes called base sta-
tions (sometimes they are also referred to as sinks). A base station links the
sensor network to another network (like a gateway) to disseminate the data
sensed for further processing. Base stations have enhanced capabilities over
simple sensor nodes since they must do complex data processing; this justi-
fies the fact that base stations have workstation/laptop class processors, and
of course enough memory, energy, storage, and computational power to
perform their tasks well. Usually, the communication between base stations
is initiated over high bandwidth links.
One of the biggest problems of sensor networks is power consumption,
which is greatly affected by the communication between nodes. To solve
this issue, aggregation points are introduced to the network. This reduces
the total number of messages exchanged between nodes and saves some
energy. Usually, aggregation points are regular nodes that receive data from
neighboring nodes, perform some kind of processing, and then forward the
filtered data to the next hop. Similar to aggregation points is clustering.
Sensor nodes are organized into clusters, each cluster having a “cluster
head” as the leader. The communication within a cluster must travel
through the cluster head, which then is forwarded to a neighboring cluster
head until it reaches its destination, the base station. Another method for
saving energy is setting the nodes to go idle (into sleep mode) if they are
not needed and wake up when required. Of course, the challenge is to find
a pattern at which energy consumption is made evenly for all the nodes in
the network.
Due to sensors’ limited capabilities, there are a lot of design issues that
must be addressed to achieve an effective and efficient operation of wire-
less sensor networks.
Energy Saving Algorithms

Since sensor nodes use batteries for power that are difficult to replace when
consumed (often sensor nodes are deployed in remote and hostile environ-
ments), it is critical to design algorithms and protocols in such a way to
utilize minimal energy. To do so, implementers must reduce communica-
tion between sensor nodes, simplify computations, and apply lightweight
security solutions.
Location Discovery
For many applications tracking an object requires knowing the exact or
approximate physical location of a sensor node in order to link sensed data
with the object under investigation. Furthermore, many geographical rout-
ing protocols need the location of sensor nodes to forward data among the
network. Location discovery protocols must be designed in such a way that

minimum information is needed to be exchanged among nodes to discover
their location. Since sensor nodes are energy constrained, solutions like
GPS are not recommended. After all, cost is another factor that influences
design; try to keep the cost at minimum levels since most sensor nodes are
usually needed for many applications. If the cost is high, the adoption and
spread of sensor technology will be prohibited.
Security
Is it possible to introduce a new technology without addressing security?
Of course not! However, as with all other technologies, security is not the
top priority when designing something new. This approach is acknowl-
edged by almost everyone, and it is erroneous, but they keep doing it
anyway. Security solutions are constrained when applying them to sensor
networks. For example, cryptography requires complex processing to pro-
vide encryption to the transmitted data. Secure routing, secure discovery,
and verification of location, key establishment and trust setup, and attacks
against sensor nodes, secure group management, and secure data aggre-
gation are some of the many issues that need to be addressed in a security
context.
1.11 WSN Sensors Introduction

Sensor networks are the key to gathering the information needed by smart
environments, whether in buildings, utilities, industries, homes, shipboards,
transportation systems, automation, or elsewhere. Recent terrorist and
guerilla warfare countermeasures require distributed networks of sensors
that can be deployed using, for example, aircraft, and have self-organizing
capabilities. In such applications, running wires or cabling is usually
impractical. A sensor network is required that is fast and easy to install and
maintain.
IEEE 1451 Smart Sensors

Wireless sensor networks satisfy these requirements. Desirable functions
for sensor nodes include: ease of installation, self-identification, self-
diagnosis, reliability, time awareness for coordination with other nodes,
some software functions and Digital Signal Processing (DSP), and stan-
dard control protocols and network interfaces. There are many sensor
manufacturers and many networks on the market today. It is too costly

for manufacturers to make special transducers for every network on the
market. Different components made by different manufacturers should
be compatible. Therefore, in 1993 the IEEE and the National Institute
of Standards and Technology (NIST) began work on a standard for Smart
Sensor Networks. IEEE 1451, the Standard for Smart Sensor Networks,
was the result. The objective of this standard is to make it easier for differ-
ent manufacturers to develop smart sensors and to interface those devices
to networks.
Smart Sensor, Virtual Sensor

Figure 1.17 shows the basic architecture of IEEE 1451. Major components
include STIM, TEDS, TII, and NCAP, as detailed in the figure. A major
outcome of IEEE 1451 studies is the formalized concept of a smart sensor.
A smart sensor is a sensor that provides extra functions beyond those neces-
sary for generating a correct representation of the sensed quantity. Included
might be signal conditioning, signal processing, and decisionmaking/alarm
functions. A general model of a smart sensor is shown in Figure 1.18.
Objectives for smart sensors include moving the intelligence closer to the
point of measurement; making it cost-effective to integrate and maintain
distributed sensor systems; creating a confluence of transducers, control,
1451.2 Interface
Smart Transducer Interface
Module (STIM)
XDCR ADC Transducer
Independent
Interface (TII)
XDCR DAC N
Network Capable E
Application T
Dig. I/O address W
XDCR Processor (NCAP)
logic O
R
XDCR ? 1451.1 Object
K
Model
Transducer
Electronic Data
Sheet (TEDS)
FIGURE 1.17 The IEEE 1451 standard for Smart Sensor Networks.
Hardware
Interface local
user
interface N
E
T
D W
Analog to application
Signal S digital O
Sensor Conditioning algorithms communication
P conversion R
K
data storage
Virtual Sensor
Network Independent Network Specific
FIGURE 1.18 A general model of a smart sensor [IEEE 1451].
quantity to be sensed transducer detectable signal
FIGURE 1.19 Sensory transducer.
computation, and communications toward a common goal; and seamlessly

interfacing numerous sensors of different types. The concept of a virtual
sensor is also depicted. A virtual sensor is the physical sensor/transducer,
plus the associated signal conditioning and digital signal processing (DSP)
required to obtain reliable estimates of the required sensory information.
The virtual sensor is a component of the smart sensor.
Transducers and Physical Transduction Principles

A transducer is a device that converts energy from one domain to another
(Figure 1.19). In our application, it converts the quantity to be sensed into
a useful signal that can be directly measured and processed. Since much
signal conditioning (SC) and digital signal processing (DSP) is carried out
by electronic circuits, the outputs of transducers that are useful for sen-
sor networks are generally voltages or currents. Microelectromechanical
Systems (MEMS) sensors are by now very well developed and are available
for most sensing applications in wireless networks. Mechanical Sensors
include those that rely on direct physical contact.
The Piezoresistive Effect

The Piezoresistive effect converts an applied strain to a change in resistance
that can be sensed using electronic circuits such as the Wheatstone bridge.
The relationship is
△R/R = S∈
with R the resistance, ∈ the strain, and S the gauge factor which depends
on quantities such as the resistivity and the Poisson’s ratio of the mate-
rial. Metals and semiconductors exhibit piezoresistivity. The piezoresistive
effect in silicon is enhanced by doping with boron (p-type silicon can have
a gauge factor up to 200). With semiconductor strain gauges, temperature
compensation is important.
The Piezoelectric Effect

The Piezoelectric effect converts an applied stress (force) to a charge sepa-
ration or potential difference. Piezoelectric materials include barium tita-
nate, PZT (Lead Zirconate Titanate - piezoelectric ceramic material), and
single-crystal quartz. The relation between the change in force F and the
change in voltage V is given by
△ V = k △F
where k is proportional to the material charge sensitivity coefficients

and the crystal thickness, and inversely proportional to the crystal area
and the material relative permittivity. The piezoelectric effect is revers-
ible, so that a change in voltage also generates a force and a correspond-
ing change in thickness. Thus, the same device can be both a sensor and
an actuator.
Tunneling Sensing
Tunneling sensing depends on the exponential relationship between the
tunneling current I and the tip/surface separation z given by
I = I0 e–kz
where k depends on the tunnel barrier height in ev. Tunneling is an

extremely accurate method of sensing nanometer-scale displacements, but
its highly nonlinear nature requires the use of feedback control to make it
useful.
Capacitive Sensors
Capacitive sensors typically have one fixed plate and one movable plate.
When a force is applied to the movable plate, the change in capacitance C
is given as
△C = ∈A/△d
with the resulting displacement, A the area, and ∈ the dielectric con-
stant. Changes in capacitance can be detected using a variety of electric
circuits and converted to a voltage or current change for further process-
ing. Inductive sensors, which convert displacement to a change in induc-
tance, are also often useful. Magnetic and Electromagnetic Sensors do
not require direct physical contact and are useful for detecting proximity
effects.
The Hall Effect

The Hall Effect relies on the fact that the Lorentz Force deflects flowing
charge carriers in a direction perpendicular to both their direction of flow
and an applied magnetic field (i.e., vector cross product). The Hall voltage
induced in a plate of thickness T is given by
VH = RIX BZ / T
with R the Hall coefficient, Ix the current flow in direction x, and BZ the
magnetic flux density in the z direction as in Figure 1.20. R is 4-5 times
larger in semiconductors than in most metals. The Magnetoresistive
effect is a related phenomenon depending on the fact that the conductivity
varies as the square of the applied flux density.
VH
BZ
Ix
current
flow
magnetic
field
FIGURE 1.20 The Hall Effect.

Magnetic Field Sensors can be used to detect the remote presence of

metallic objects. Eddy-Current Sensors use magnetic probe coils to
detect defects in metallic structures such as pipes. Thermal Sensors are a
family of sensors used to measure temperature or heat flux. Most biological
organisms have developed sophisticated temperature sensing systems.
Thermo-Mechanical Transduction
Thermo-Mechanical Transduction is used for temperature sensing and
regulation in homes and automobiles. On changes in temperature T, all
materials exhibit (linear) thermal expansion of the form,
△L / L = μ △T
with L the length and μ the coefficient of linear expansion. One can fabri-
cate a strip of two joined materials with different thermal expansions. Then,
the radius of curvature of this thermal bimorph depends on the tempera-
ture change.
Thermoresistive Effects
Thermoresistive effects are based on the fact that the resistance R changes
with temperature T. For moderate changes, the relation is approximately
given by many metals,
△R / R = μR △T
with μR the temperature coefficient of resistance. Hence, silicon is useful
for detecting temperature changes.
Thermocouples
Thermocouples are based on the thermoelectric Seebeck effect, whereby
if a circuit consists of two different materials joined together at each end,
with one junction hotter than the other, current flows in the circuit. This
generates a Seebeck voltage given approximately by,
V = μ (T1 - T2) + (T12 - T22)
with T1, T2 the temperatures at the two junctions. The coefficients depend on
the properties of the two materials. Semiconductor thermocouples gener-
ally have higher sensitivities than do metal thermocouples. Thermocouples
are inexpensive and reliable, and so are much used. Typical thermocouples
have outputs on the order of 50 μV/ °C and some are effective for tempera-
ture ranges of –270 °C to 2700 °C.
Resonant Temperature Sensors

Resonant temperature sensors rely on the fact that single-crystal SiO2 exhib-
its a change in resonant frequency depending on temperature change. Since
this is a frequency effect, it is more accurate than amplitude-change effects
and has extreme sensitivity and accuracy for small temperature changes.
Optical Transducers
Optical transducers convert light to various quantities that can be detected.
In the photoelectric effect one electron is emitted at the negative end of a
pair of charged plates for each light photon of sufficient energy. This causes
a current to flow. In photoconductive sensors, photons generate carriers
that lower the resistance of the material. In junction-based photo sensors,
photons generate electron-hole pairs in a semiconductor junction that
cause current flow. This is often misnamed the photovoltaic effect. These
devices include photodiodes and phototransistors. Thermopiles use a ther-
mocouple with one junction coated in a gold or bismuth black absorber,
which generates heat on illumination.
Solar cells are large photodiodes that generate voltage from light.
Bolometers consist of two thermally sensitive resistors in a Wheatstone
bridge configuration, with one of them shielded from the incident light.
Optical transducers can be optimized for different frequencies of light,
resulting in infrared detectors, ultraviolet detectors, and so on. Various
devices, including accelerometers, are based on optical fiber technology,
often using timeof-flight information.
Chemical and Biological Transducers

Chemical and biological transducers cover a very wide range of devices
that interact with solids, liquids, and gases of all types. Potential applica-
tions include environmental monitoring, biochemical warfare monitoring,
security area surveillance, medical diagnostics, implantable biosensors, and
food monitoring. Effective use has been shown for NOx (from pollution),
organophosphorus pesticides, nerve gases (Sarin, etc.), hydrogen cyanide,
smallpox, anthrax, COX, SOX, and others.
Chemiresistors
Chemiresistors have two interdigitated finger electrodes coated with
specialized chemical coatings that change their resistance when exposed
to certain chemical challenge agents. The electrodes may be connected
directly to an FET (Field Effect Transistor), which amplifies the resulting

signals for good noise rejection. This device is known as an interdigitated-
gate electrode FET (IGEFET), as shown in Figure 1.21. Arrays of
chemiresistors, each device with a different chemically active coating, can
be used to increase specificity for specific challenge agents. Digital signal
processing, including neural network classification techniques, is important
in correct identification of the agent.
0.6 MF DC blocking
capacitor Differential mode Sensor Output
amplifier
FIGURE 1.21 IGEFET structure.
Metal-Oxide Gas Sensors

Metal-oxide gas sensors rely on the fact that adsorption of gases onto cer-
tain semiconductors greatly changes their resistivities. In thin-film detec-
tors, a catalyst such as platinum is deposited on the surface to speed the
reactions and enhance the response. Useful as sensors are the oxides of tin,
zinc, iron, zirconium, and so forth. Gases that can be detected include CO2,
CO, HSS, NH3, and ozone. Reactions are of the form
O2 + 2e- ➝ 2O-
so that adsorption effectively produces an electron trap site, effectively
depleting the surface of mobile carriers and increasing resistance.
Electrochemical Transducers
Electrochemical transducers rely on currents induced by oxidation or
reduction of a chemical species at an electrode surface. These are among
the simplest and most useful of chemical sensors. An electron transfer
reaction occurs that is described by O, with O the oxidized species, R the
reduced species, and z the charge on the ion involved. The resulting cur-
rent density is given in terms of z.
Biosensors
Biosensors of a wide variety of types depend on the high selectivity of many
biomolecular reactions; that is, molecular binding sites of the detector
may only admit certain species of analyte molecules. Unfortunately, such
reactions are not usually reversible, so the sensor is not reusable. These
devices have a biochemically active thin film deposited on a platform
device that converts induced property changes (e.g., mass, resistance)
into detectable electric or optical signals. Suitable conversion platforms
include the IGEFET, ion-sensitive FET (ISFET), SAW (Surface Acoustic
Wave), quartz crystal microbalance (QCM), microcantilevers, and so on.
To provide specificity to a prescribed analyte measurand, for the thin film
one may use proteins (enzymes or antibodies), polysaccharide, nucleic
acid, oligonucleotides, or an ionophore (which has selective responses to
specific ion types). Arrays of sensors can be used, each having a different
biochemically active film, to improve sensitivity. This has been used in the
so-called “electronic nose.”
The Electromagnetic Spectrum can be used to fabricate remote sen-
sors of a wide variety of types. Generally the wavelength suitable for a par-
ticular application is selected based on the propagation distance, the level
of detail and resolution required, the ability to penetrate solid materials or
certain mediums, and the signal processing difficulty. Doppler techniques
allow the measurement of velocities. Millimeter waves have been used for
satellite remote monitoring. Infrared is used for night vision and sensing
heat. IR motion detectors are inexpensive and reliable. Electromagnetic
waves can be used to determine distance using time-of-flight information.
Radar uses RF waves and Lidar uses light (laser). The velocity of light is
c = 299.8 x 10 m/s. GPS uses RF for absolute position localization. Visible
light imaging using cameras is used in a broad range of applications but
generally requires the use of sophisticated and computationally expensive
DSP techniques including edge detection, thresholding, segmentation, pat-
tern recognition, motion analysis, and so forth.
Acoustic Sensors
Acoustic sensors include those that use sound as a sensing medium. Doppler
techniques allow the measurement of velocities. Ultrasound often provides
more information about mechanical machinery vibrations, fluid leakage,
and impending equipment faults than do other techniques. Sonar uses

sound to determine distance using time-of-flight information. It is effective
in media other than air, including underwater. Caution should be used in
that the propagation speed of acoustic signals depends on the medium. The
speed of sound at sea level in a standard atmosphere is cS = 340.294 m/s.
Subterranean echoes from earthquakes and tremors can be used to glean
information about the earth’s core as well as about the tremor event, but
deconvolution techniques must be used to remove echo phenomena and
to compensate for uncertain propagation speeds. The acoustic spectrum is
shown in Figure 1.22.
Infra Red Sound Ultra Sound
Wavelength (STP at sea level)

50m 10m 1m 10cm 1cm 1mm
5 20 200 2,000 20,000 1,00,000 2,00,000

Frequency in Hz
Elephants Cats Dolphins
Humans Dogs Bats
FIGURE 1.22 The acoustic spectrum.
Acoustic Wave Sensors

Acoustic wave sensors are useful for a broad range of sensing devices.
These transducers can be classified as surface acoustic wave (SAW), thick-
ness-shear mode (TSM), flexural plate wave (FPW), or acoustic plate mode
(APM). The SAW is shown in Figure 1.23 and consists of two sets of inter-
digitated fingers at each end of a membrane, one set for generating the
SAW and one for detecting it. Like the IGEFET, these are useful platforms
to convert property changes such as mass into detectable electrical signals.
For instance, the surface of the device can be coated with a chemically or
biologically active thin film. On presentation of the measurand to be sensed,
adsorption might cause the mass m to change, resulting in a frequency shift
given by the Sauerbrey equation
△f = k f02 △m/A
with f0 the membrane resonant frequency, constant k depending on the

device, and A the membrane area.
Drive electrodes Detector electrodes
membrane
FIGURE 1.23 SAW Sensor.
Hybrid passive wireless resonant electrical and mechanical sensors

A hybrid passive wireless resonant electrical and mechanical sensor mea-
sures viscosity and dielectric properties of liquid samples. It is composed of
two magnetoelastic strips placed in parallel that are separated with a dielec-
tric spacer forming a capacitor. An inductive coil is attached in parallel to
this capacitor leading to an electrical resonant inductive capacitive (L-C)
tank. Both mechanical and electrical resonance frequencies are wirelessly
measured using a single pickup coil connected to an impedance analyzer.
Mechanical resonance measures the viscosity and electrical resonance mea-
sures the dielectric properties of liquid samples. It can be used in food
quality monitoring and control such as adulteration detection of oils, milk
adulterated with water, and glucose in water.
Sensors for Smart Environments

Table 1.3 shows which physical principles may be used to measure
various quantities. MEMS sensors are by now available for most of these
measurands.
Table 1.3 Measurement of Various Quantities for WSNs
Measurements for wireless sensor networks

Measurand Transduction Principle
Physical Pressure Piezoresistive, capacitive
properties Temperature Thermistor, thermo-mechanical, thermocouple
Humidity Resistive, capacitive
Flow Pressure change, thermistor
Motion Position E-mag, GPS, contact sensor
properties Velocity Doppler, Hall effect, optoelectronic
Measurements for wireless sensor networks

Measurand Transduction Principle
Angular velocity Optical encoder
Acceleration Piezoresistive, piezoelectric, optical fiber
Contact Strain Piezoresistive
Properties
Force Piezoelectric, piezoresistive
Torque Piezoresistive, optoelectronic
Slip Dual torque
Vibration Piezoresistive, piezoelectric, optical fiber, sound,
ultrasound
Presence Tactile/contact Contact switch, capacitive
Proximity Hall effect, capacitive, magnetic, seismic, acoustic, RF
Distance/range E-mag (sonar, radar, lidar), magnetic, tunneling
Motion E-mag, IR, acoustic, seismic (vibration)
Biochemical Biochemical Biochemical transduction
agents
Identification Personal features Vision
Personal ID Fingerprint, retinal scan, voice, heat plume, vision
motion analysis
Comparing Sensor Nodes to Ad Hoc Wireless Networks

An ad hoc network is a local area network (LAN) that is built spontaneously
as devices connect. Instead of relying on a base station to coordinate the
flow of messages to each node in the network, the individual network nodes
forward packets to and from each other. In Latin, ad hoc literally means
“for this,” meaning “for this special purpose,” and also, by extension, impro-
vised. In the Windows operating system, ad hoc is a communication mode
(setting) that allows computers to directly communicate with each other
without a router. Wireless sensor networks share similarities (and differ-
ences) with ad hoc wireless networks. The main similarity is the multi-hop
communication method.
Both consist of wireless nodes, but they are different in the factors
such as failure, energy drain, unique global IDs, Data-centric, query-based
addressing vs. address-centric, and resource limitations like memory, power,
and processing.
The differences among the two types of networks are listed as follows:
• More nodes are deployed in a sensor network, up to a hundred or a
thousand nodes, than in an ad hoc network that usually involves far
fewer nodes.
• Sensor nodes are more constrained in computational, energy, and
storage resources than ad hoc.
• Sensor nodes can be deployed in environments without the need of
human intervention and can remain unattended for a long time after
deployment.
• Neighboring sensor nodes often sense the same events from their
environment, thus forwarding the same data to the base station,
resulting in redundant information.
Aggregation and in-network processing often require trust relation-
ships between sensor nodes that are not typically assumed in ad hoc
networks.
Sensor Technologies and the Selection of Sensors

A sensor should be selected depending on the application in mind. Sensors
are of two types: limit detectors and qualitative and quantitative analysis
measuring elements. The limit detection type of sensors gives out logic 1
or 0. This operates as a watchdog in the system and annunciates in fast
response at the occurrence of a monitored parameter. Specially this could
be an active element used for a particular purpose as a feedback circuit
in a power supply, or a Hall effect switch detecting the presence of a
magnetic field of rated a magnetic flux and direction. The other example
is a PIR detector detecting presence of an object and movement of the
same. A qualitative and quantitative analysis type of sensor could do the job
rather slowly and deliver its response in a required electrical form. Table 1.4
indicates different sensor-based technologies.
There are certain things which the design has to ensure so that product
does not fail due to faulty selection of the sensor involved.
1. Identifying the sensing parameter

The parameter could be in any form such as voltage, current, frequency,
temperature, pressure, light, touch, presence, sound, and chemical reaction
to name a few. Any of these needs to be converted to electrical form for
electronic analysis. “A thermistor varies its resistance depending on the

thermal stress over it. A thermistor as an element in a potential divider
circuit results out a temperature corresponding to the potential across it.
An engineer working on this needs to analyze the range of operation of the
thermistor, and needs a way to get the safe operating range of the sensor,
to observe the performance of the thermistor to see what time it takes to
convert the parameter, and the linearity and response of the sensor for the
physical change occurring across it. While selecting an IR sensor for sensing
the proximity of objects, which emits an electromagnetic field or a beam
of electromagnetic radiation, and looks for changes in the field or return
signal, one essentially needs to carefully consider the “sensing frequency”
at which sensing data is provided, the “range” that gets covered in the form
of angle/distance with “resolution,” “size” depending on the device upon
which such a proximity sensor will be mounted, and operating environment/
conditions under which such a sensor will function.” Such a sensor can have
high reliability and long functional life due to the absence of mechanical
parts and the lack of physical contact between the sensor and the object.
2. Reliability
Ensuring a robust design with maintenance-free packaging is very impor-
tant. This is because sensors are that part of the device which mostly comes
into contact with the world, and hence has to have the ability to withstand
harsh environments without losing performance.
Table 1.4 Different Sensor-Based Technologies
Sensors Technology Usage

Highly sensitive six-axis Augmented Realty Provides completely new ways to play
sensor technology and Remote and interact with games
play technology
Proximity sensor Capacitive multipoint Orientation, capacitive touch
touch technology
Sudden motion sensor Sudden motion sensor To help protect the hard disk from
technology damage against sudden vibration or
accelerated movement
Motion sensors (gyro- 9-axis sensor fusion Less power consumption, increase in
scopes, accelerometers technology battery life, fusion of motion sensor by
and magnetic sensors) manufacturer without any restriction
Motion sensor DSP technology Remote playback control
Sensors Technology Usage

Accelerometer, IR Motion sensing tech- For private listening with built-in
sensor nology, RF technology headphone jack and compatibility of
the device with a remote from any
manufacturer
Color sensor Triluminos display For auto color calibration
technology
Capacity sensor Capacitive input Easy one-touch scrolling and quick
technology system control through a customizable
gadget bar
Eco sensor Motion sensing tech- Allows easy and smooth working of the
nology, smart control set top box and remote control with
and smart recognition the following smart interactions: face
recognition, hand gesture recognition
and voice recognition
Exmor R CMOS sensor For image processing
Fingerprint sensor Fingerprint technology To unlock the phone and use iTunes
Motion sensor Motion sensor To save power when the phone is not
technology being carried around by checking for
updates less often (motion sensor)
Gyroscope, accelerom- TruVivid technology Fuses sensor glass with the sensor
eter, light sensor, mag- attached as a film
netometer, hall sensor,
proximity sensor (with
cellular model)
Ambient light sensor, In cell touch No discrete touch panel, technology is
gyroscope, magnetom- technology integrated in the display
eter, proximity sensor,
tilt sensor
Kinect sensor Kinect real motion, Track up to six skeletons at once, per-
voice, vision technology form heart rate tracking, track gestures
performed with an Xbox One control-
ler, and scan Quick Response (QR)
codes to redeem Xbox Live gift cards
3. Easy integration
From the developer’s perspective, using ADC, employing filtering
equations, extracting data, and then calibrating the firmware is troublesome.
This is why, to reduce the design effort, pre- calibrated sensors which
support common interfaces like IIC or SPI, and so on, are preferable. A
common example is the use of NTC or PTC thermistors versus a DHT11
sensor to read temperature and humidity data. DHT11 temperature and

humidity sensors feature a temperature and humidity sensor complex
with a calibrated digital signal output. By using the exclusive digital signal
acquisition technique and temperature and humidity sensing technology,
it ensures high reliability and excellent long-term stability. This sensor
includes a resistive type humidity measurement component and an
NTC temperature measurement component, and connects to a high
performance 8-bit microcontroller, offering excellent quality, fast response,
anti-interference ability, and cost effectiveness. The SP1202S01RB sensor
by National Semiconductor is used for measuring the liquid level utilizing a
pressure sensor. Most importantly, this sensor is being used for sensing the
quantity of water in draught affected areas.
4. Software
There are also some sensors whose role mainly depends on the software.
These analyze the environment by sensing some parameters and make use
of a software to come to a decision. Fuzzy logic plays a vital role in such
sensors. The place where the sensor plays a small role but circuitry and
software play a vital role is the load cell for weighing applications. The load
cell is a wheat stone bridge to develop a differential potential at the stress
applied on one of the wings of the bridge. The developed potential puts in
few microvolts prone to get affected by noise due to external disturbances,
and varies due to vibrations created over the platform. ADCs employed
to read these parameters need to be properly selected. Software to reject
the noise as well as average the weight data to produce a calibrated weight
accurately is as important as a physical sensor.
Summary
• Sensor networks are highly distributed networks of wireless sensor
nodes, deployed in large numbers to monitor the environment or
system.
• A wireless sensor network (WSN) is a collection of nodes organized
into a cooperative network. Each node consists of processing
capability (one or more microcontrollers, CPUs, or DSP chips),
may contain multiple types of memory (program, data, and flash
memories), have a RF transceiver (usually with a single omni-
directional antenna), have a power source (e.g., batteries and solar
cells), and accommodate various sensors and actuators.
• The wireless standards used by WSN are 802.15.4 and Zigbee.

• A spectrum is a range of electromagnetic radiation. There are three
approaches: ISM band, narrow band, and spread spectrum.
• The wireless sensor networks consist of a data acquisition network
and a data distribution network, monitored and controlled by a
management center.
• The general functions of networks are bit pipes of data, Medium
Access Control for sharing of a common medium, routing,
synchronization, and error control.
• The wireless layers needed are physical, data link, network, and
upper layers.
• Sensor networks are the key to gathering the information needed
by smart environments, whether in buildings, utilities, industries,
homes, shipboards, transportation systems, automation, or elsewhere.
• A transducer is a device that converts energy from one domain to
another.
Questions
1. What is a wireless sensor network?
2. Explain different network topologies.
3. What are the advantages and uses of WSNs?
4. Write about the historical development of wireless standards.
5. What is the sensor?
6. What is the sensor network?
7. What is the sensor node?
8. What is the definition of a wireless sensor network?
9. List some of applications of WSNs.
10. List some of difficulties in WSN research.
11. What are the basic requirements of WSNs?
12. Define spectrum.
13. Explain about the wireless network architecture.

14. Write about smart sensors.
15. Explain in detail about different sensors.
16. Differentiate between wireless sensor networks and ad hoc wireless
networks.
17. What are the factors influencing the selection of sensors?
Further Reading
1. Fundamentals of Wireless Sensor Networks Theory and Practice by
Waltenegus Dargie
2. A Guide to Wireless Sensor Networks by S. Swapna Kumar
3. Wireless Sensor and Actuator Networks by Nayak
References
1. http://www.ni.com/white-paper/7142/en/
2. http://wireless.ictp.it/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Zennaro.pdf
3. Saranraj, Karuppuswami, Harikrishnan Arangali, and Premjeet
Chahal. “A Hybrid Electrical-Mechanical Wireless Magnetoelastic
Sensor for Liquid Sample Measurements.” Paper presented at the
Electronic Components and Technology Conference (ECTC), 2016
IEEE 66th, IEEE, 2016.
CHAPTER
2
NODE HARDWARE
ARCHITECTURE
This chapter discusses different node hardware architectures. At the
end of the chapter, one would be able to select the node architecture
suitable for their project.
2.1 Architecture of Wireless Sensor Nodes
Wireless sensor nodes are the essential building blocks in a wireless sensor
network for sensing, processing, and communication. The node stores and
executes the communication protocols as well as data processing algorithms.
It consists of sensing, processing, communication, and power subsystems as
shown in Figure 2.1. It is a trade-off between flexibility and efficiency both
in terms of energy and performance.
Light Data Program Data Radio
Accel. ADC SPI SPI

Flash Coprocessor
Temp. ADC 2
IC
Sensor Subsystem Processor Subsystem Communication Subsystem
FIGURE 2.1 Architecture of a wireless sensor node.

Sensing Subsystem
The sensing subsystem integrates all the kinds of sensors, needed to mea-
sure the parameters. Table 2.1 shows the sensors and their application area.
Table 2.1 Sensors and Their Application Area
Sensor Application Area Sensed Event Explanation

Accelerometer 2D and 3D acceleration of Volcano activities
movements of people and
objects
Structural Health Stiffness of a structure
Monitoring (SHM)
Health care Stiffness of bones, limbs,
joints; Motorfluctuation in
Parkinson’s disease
Transportation Irregularities in rail, axle
box, or wheels of a train
system
Supply Chain Detect ion of
Management fragile objects during
(SCM) transportation
Acoustic emis- SHM Elastic waves generated Measures micro-structural
sion sensor by the energy released changes or displacements
during crack propagation
Acoustic Transportation & Acoustic pressure Vehicle detection;
sensor Pipelines vibration Measures structural
irregularities; Gas
contamination
Capacitance Precision Solute concentration Measures the water con-
sensor Agriculture (PA) tent of soil
ECG Health Care Heart Rate
EEG Brain electrical activity
EMG Muscle activity
Electrical PA Electrical capacitance or Measure of nutrient con-
sensors inductance affected by the tents and distribution
composition of tested soil
Gyroscope Health care Angular velocity Detection of gall phases
Humidity PA & Health Relative and absolute
sensor Monitoring (HM) humidity
Infrasonic Concussive acoustic
sensor waves—earthquake or
volcanic eruption
Node Hardware Architecture • 51
Sensor Application Area Sensed Event Explanation

Magnetic Transportation Presence, intensity, direc- Presence, speed, and
sensor tion, rotation, and varia- density of a vehicle on a
tion of a magnetic field street; congestion
Oximeter Health care Blood oxygenation of a Cardiovascular exertion
patient’s hemoglobin and trending of exertion
relative to activity
pH sensor Pipeline (water) Concentration of hydro- Indicate the acid and
gen ions alkaline content of water
to measure of cleanliness
Photo acoustic Pipeline Gas sensing Detects gas leak in a
spectroscopy pipeline
Piezoelectric Pipeline Gas velocity A leak produces a high
cyclinder frequency noise that
produces a vibration
Soil moisture PA Soil moisture Fertilizer and water
sensor management
Temperature PA&HM Pressure exerted on a fluid
sensor
Passive Health care & Infrared radiation from Motion detection
Infrared HM objects
Sensor
Seismic sensor Measure primary and sec- Detection of earth quake
ondary seismic waves (Body
wave, ambient vibration)
Oxygen sensor Health care Amount and proportion of
oxygen in the blood
Blood flow Health care The Doppler shift of a
sensor reflected ultrasonic wave
in the blood
Analog to Digital Converter (ADC)

An ADC converts the output of a sensor, which is a continuous, analog
signal, into a digital signal. It requires two steps:
1. The analog signal has to be quantized. Allowable discrete values are

influenced. It depends on the frequency and magnitude of the signal
and by the available processing and storage resources.
2. The sampling frequency is needed to convert to an equivalent digital
signal. The Nyquist sampling rate does not suffice because of noise
and transmission error.
The resolution of ADC is an expression of the number of bits that can be

used to encode the digital output.
Epp
Q=
2M
where Q is the resolution in volts per step (volts per output code); Epp is
the peak-to-peak analog voltage; M is the ADC’s resolution in bits. Its main
purpose is to execute instructions pertaining to sensing, communication, and
self-organization. It consists of a processor chip in which nonvolatile mem-
ory stores the program instructions and active memory temporarily stores the
sensed data.
The Processor Subsystem

The processor subsystem can be designed by employing one of the three
basic computer architectures.
1. Von Neumann architecture
2. Harvard architecture
3. Super-Harvard (SHARC) architecture
Von Neumann Architecture

It provides a single memory space for storing program instructions and data.
It provides a single bus to transfer data between the processor and the mem-
ory. It has slow processing speed, as each data transfer requires a separate
clock. This architecture is shown in Figure 2.2.
Processor Memory
Address Bus
Data Bus
FIGURE 2.2 Von Neumann architecture.
Harvard Architecture
It provides separate memory spaces for storing program instructions and data.
Each memory space is interfaced with the processor with a separate data bus,
and program instructions and data can be accessed at the same time. It has a
special single instruction, multiple data (SIMD) operation, a special arith-
metic operation, and a bit reverse.
It supports multi-tasking operating systems but does not provide virtual
memory protection. This architecture is shown in Figure 2.3.
Data Program
Memory Processor Memory
Address Bus
Data Bus
FIGURE 2.3 Harvard architecture.
Super-Harvard Architecture (SHARC)

It is an extension of the Harvard architecture. It is shown in Figure 2.4. It
adds two components to the Harvard architecture:
1. An internal instruction cache temporarily stores frequently used instruc-
tions, which enhances performance, and an underutilized program
memory can be used as a temporary relocation place for data.
2. With Direct Memory Access (DMA), costly CPU cycles can be in-
vested in a different task. The program memory bus and data memory
bus are accessible from outside the chip.
Program Processor Program

Memory Memory
Instruction
Cache
Address Bus I/O Controller

Data Bus
FIGURE 2.4 SHARC architecture.

Structure of the Microcontroller

It integrates the components such as the CPU core, volatile memory
(RAM) for data storage, ROM, EPROM, EEPROM or Flash memory,
parallel I/O interfaces, discrete input and output bits, a clock generator,
one or more internal analog-to-digital converters, and serial communica-
tions interfaces.
Advantages
It is suitable for building computationally less intensive, standalone
applications, because of its compact construction, small size, low-power
consumption, and low cost, and the high speed of the programming
eases debugging, because of the use of higher-level programming
languages.
Disadvantages
It is not as powerful and as efficient as some custom-made processors (such
as DSPs and FPGAs). In some applications (simple sensing tasks but with
large scale deployments), one may prefer to use architecturally simple but
energy-and cost-efficient processors.
Digital Signal Processor

The main function is to process discrete signals with digital filters. Its filters
mimmize the effect of noise on a signal or enhance or modify the spectral
characteristics of a signal. While analog signal processing requires com-
plex hardware components, digital signal processors (DSP) require simple
adders, multipliers, and delay circuits. DSPs are highly efficient. Most
DSPs are designed with Harvard Architecture.
Advantages
It is powerful, and complex digital filters can be realized with common-
place DSPs. It is useful for applications that require the deployment of
nodes in harsh physical settings (where the signal transmission suffers cor-
ruption due to noise and interference and, hence, requires aggressive signal
processing).
Disadvantages
Some tasks require protocols (and not numerical operations) that require peri-
odic upgrades or modifications (i.e., the networks should support flexibility in
network reprogramming).
Application-Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC)

ASIC is an IC that can be customized for a specific application. There are two
types of design approaches: full-customized and half-customized.
Full-customized ICs are built with some logic cells, circuits, or layouts
which are custom made in order to optimize cell performance and include
features which are not defined by the standard cell library. They are expen-
sive and require a long design time. Half-customized ASICs are built with
logic cells that are available in the standard library. In both cases, the final
logic structure is configured by the end user. An ASIC is a cost-efficient
solution, flexible and reusable.
Advantages
It is a relatively simple design; it can be optimized to meet a specific cus-
tomer demand, and multiple microprocessor cores and embedded software
can be designed in a single cell.
Disadvantages
It requires high development costs and a lack of re-configurability
Applications
ASICs are not meant to replace microcontrollers or DSPs but to complement
them. They are able to handle rudimentary and low-level tasks and decouple
these tasks from the main processing subsystem.
Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA)

The distinction between ASICs and FPGAs is not always clear. FPGAs are
more complex in design and more flexible to program. FPGAs are pro-
grammed electrically, by modifying a packaged part. Programming is done
with the support of circuit diagrams and hardware description languages,
such as VHDL and Verilog.
Advantages
• It requires higher bandwidth compared to DSPs.
• It is flexible in its application.
• It supports parallel processing.
• It works with floating point representation.
• It has greater flexibility of control.
Disadvantages
It is complex and the design and realization process is costly.
Comparison
Working with a microcontroller is preferred if the design goal is to achieve
flexibility. Working with the other mentioned options is preferred if power
consumption and computational efficiency is desired. DSPs are expensive,
large in size and less flexible; they are best for signal processing, with spe-
cific algorithms. FPGAs are faster than both microcontrollers and digital
signal processors and support parallel computing, but their production cost
and programming difficulty make them less suitable. ASICs have higher
bandwidths; they are the smallest in size, perform much better, and con-
sume less power than any of the other processing types, but have a high cost
of production owing to the complex design process.
Communication Interfaces
The choice is often between serial interfaces: Serial Peripheral Interface
(SPI), General Purpose Input/Output (GPIO), Secure Data Input/Output
(SDIO), and Inter-Integrated Circuit (I2C). Among these, the most com-
monly used buses are SPI and I2C.
Serial Peripheral Interface
SPI (Motorola, in the mid-80s) is a high-speed, full-duplex, synchronous
serial bus. It does not have an official standard, but use of the SPI interface
should conform to the implementation specification of other interfaces.
The SPI bus defines four pins:
1. MOSI (MasterOut/Slaveln): It is used to transmit data from the master
to the slave when a device is configured as a master.
2. MISO (Masterln/SlaveOut): The slave generates this signal, and the
recipient is the master.
3. SCLK (Serial Clock) is used by the master to send the clock signal that
is needed to synchronize transmission. It is used by the slave to read
this signal to synchronize transmission.
4. CS (Chip Select) is used to communicate via the CS port.
Both master and slave devices hold a shift register. Every device in every trans-
mission must read and send data. SPI supports a synchronous communication
protocol. The master and the slave must agree on the timing. Master and slave
should agree on two additional parameters:
1. Clock polarity (CPOL) defines whether a clock is used as high- or low-
active.
2. Clock phase (CPHA) determines the times when the data in the regis-
ters is allowed to change and when the written data can be read. Table 2.2
shows the different modes of SPI.
Table 2.2 Different Modes of Serial Peripheral Interface
SPI Mode CPOL CPHA Description

0 0 0 SCLK is low-active.
Sampling is allowed on odd clock
edges. Data changes on even clock edges.
1 0 1 SCLK is low-active.
Sampling is allowed on even clock edges.
Data changes on odd clock edges.
2 1 0 SCLK is high-active.
Sampling is allowed on odd clock edges.
Data changes on even clock edges.
3 1 1 SCLK is high-active.
Sampling is allowed on even clock edges.
Data changes on odd clock edges.
Inter-Integrated Circuit (I2C)

Every device type that uses I2C must have a unique address that will be
used to communicate with a device. In earlier versions, a 7 bit address was
used, allowing 112 devices to be uniquely addressed. Due to an increasing
number of devices, it is insufficient. Currently I2C uses 10 bit addressing.
I2C is a multi-master half-duplex synchronous serial bus with only two bidi-
rectional lines (unlike SPI, which uses four): Serial Clock (SCL) and Serial
Data (SDA). Since each master generates its own clock signal, communicat-
ing devices must synchronize their clock speeds. A slower slave device could
wrongly detect its address on the SDA line while a faster master device
is sending data to a third device. I2C requires arbitration between master
devices wanting to send or receive data at the same time and no fair arbi-
tration algorithm. It is rather that the master that holds the SDA line low
for the longest time wins the medium. I2C enables a device to read data at
a byte level for fast communication. The device can hold the SCL low until
it completes reading or sending the next byte, which is called handshaking.
The aim of I2C is to minimize costs for connecting devices and accommo-
date lower transmission speeds. I2C defines two speed modes:
1. A fast-mode: A bit rate of up to 400Kbps.
2. High-speed mode: A transmission rate of up to 3.4 Mbps.
They are downward compatible to ensure communication with older com-
ponents. Table 2.3 gives the comparison between SPI and I2C.
Table 2.3 Comparison between SPI and I2C
SPI I2C
4 lines enable full-duplex transmission. 2 lines reduce space and simplify circuit
layout; lower costs.
No addressing is required due to CS. Addressing enables multi-master mode;
Arbitration is required.
Allowing only one master avoids conflicts Multi-master mode is prone to conflicts.
Hardware requirement support increases Hardware requirement is independent of the
with an increasing number of connected number of devices using the bus.
devices, hence, it is costly.
The master’s clock is configured according to Slower devices may stretch the clock latency
the slave’s speed but speed adaptation slows but keep other devices waiting.
down the master.
Speed depends on the maximum speed of the Speed is limited to 5.4MHz.
slowest device.
Heterogeneous register size allows flexibility Homogeneous register size reduces
in the devices that are supported. overhead.
Combined registers imply every transmission Devices that do not read or provide data are
should be read AND written. not forced to provide potentially useless bytes.
The absence of an official standard leads to Official standard eases integration of devices
application specific implementations. since developers can rely on a certain
implementation.
Buses are essential highways to transfer data, and due to the concern for
size, only serial buses can be used. Serial buses demand high clock speeds
to gain the same throughput as parallel buses. Serial buses can also be bot-
tlenecks (e.g., Von Neumann architecture) or may not scale well with the
processor speed (e.g., I2C). Delays due to contention for bus access become
critical, for example, if some of the devices act unfairly and keep the bus
occupied.
2.2 Components of Wireless Sensor Node Architecture

Wireless sensor networks comprise a number of spatially distributed sensor
nodes which cooperate to monitor the physical qualities of a given environ-
ment. Commercial wireless sensor node products are typically composed
of a single microcontroller and a number of other components. The wire-
less sensor node architecture divides processing power among multiple
microcontrollers, with the intention of increasing flexibility, reducing cost,
providing fault tolerance, improving development processes, and conserv-
ing energy. A wireless sensor node is composed of four basic components
[Figure 2.5]: a sensing unit, a processing unit (microcontroller), a trans-
ceiver unit, and apower unit.
Sensing Unit Processing Unit
Sensors
Processor
Transceiver
I/O
ADC Memory
Power Unit
FIGURE 2.5 The components of a wireless sensor node.
In addition to the previous units, a wireless sensor node may include a num-
ber of application-specific components, for example, a location detection sys-
tem or mobilizer; for this reason, many commercial sensor nodes include
expansion slots and support serial wired communication.
Sensing Unit
A sensor is a device that measures some physical quantity and converts it into
a signal to be processed by the microcontroller. A wide range of sensor types
exist including seismic, thermal, acoustic, visual, infrared, and magnetic.
Some of the sensors are discussed in the previous chapter. Sensors may be
passive (sensing without active manipulation of the environment) or active
(using active manipulation/probing of the environment to sense data, e.g.,
radar) and may be directional or omni-directional. A wireless sensor node
may include multiple sensors providing complimentary data. The sensing of

a physical quantity such as those described typically results in the production
of a continuous analog signal, and for this reason, a sensing unit is typically
composed of a number of sensors and an analog to digital convertor (ADC)
which digitizes the signal.
Microcontroller
A microcontroller provides the processing power for, and coordinates the
activity of, a wireless sensor node. Unlike the processing units associated
with larger computers, a microcontroller integrates processing with some
memory provision and I/O peripherals; such integration reduces the need
for additional hardware, wiring, energy, and circuit board space. In addition
to the memory provided by the microcontroller, it is not uncommon for a
wireless sensor node to include some external memory, for example in the
form of flash memory.
Transceiver
A transceiver unit allows the transmission and reception of data to other
devices connecting a wireless sensor node to a network. Wireless sensor
nodes typically communicate using an RF (radio frequency) transceiver
and a wireless personal area network technology such as Bluetooth or the
802.15.4 compliant protocols ZigBee and MiWi. The 802.15.4 standard
specifies the physical layer and medium access control for low-rate, low-cost
wireless communications while protocols such as ZigBee and MiWi build
upon this by developing the upper layers of the OSI Reference Model. The
Bluetooth specification crosses all layers of the OSI Reference Model and
is also designed for low-rate, low-cost wireless networking. Wireless sen-
sor communications tend to operate in the RF industrial, scientific, and
medical (ISM) bands, which are designed for unlicensed operation.
Power Source
Wireless sensor nodes must be supported by a power unit which is typically
some form of storage (that is, a battery) but may be supported by power
scavenging components (for example, solar cells). Energy from power scav-
enging techniques may only be stored in rechargeable (secondary) batteries,
and this can be a useful combination in wireless sensor node environments
where maintenance operations like battery changing are impractical. To
conserve energy a power unit may additionally support power conservation
techniques such as dynamic voltage scaling.
2.3 Common Wireless Sensor Node Architecture

The following is a discussion about the two commonly used sensor nodes.
Sharing a number of common features, the two devices are built around dif-
ferent microcontrollers and are arranged in considerably different configu-
rations. Like many wireless sensor platforms, the sensor in Figure 2.6 (a)
uses 802.15.4 wireless sensor communications in the 2.4GHz ISM band,
allowing the devices to be used unlicensed regardless of their global loca-
tion. Support is provided for a high data rate (250kbps) and secure (AES-
128) radio communications, and every node has the capacity to operate as a
router to forward data received from other nodes. The Figure 2.6 (a) sensor
node does not directly include any sensor functionality but instead supplies
an expansion connector compatible with a range of sensor boards includ-
ing light, temperature, acoustic, and magnetic sensing. It is powered by an
ATMEGA 128 microcontroller, has 4kB of RAM and 128kB of flash mem-
ory, and supports a range of operating systems for wireless sensor nodes
including TinyOS, SOS, Mantis OS, and Nano-RK.
Radio Transceiver Radio Transceiver
ATMEGA128 Expansion MSP430 Expansion

Microcontroller Connector Sensors Microcontroller Connector
Flash memory Wired Flash

connectivity Memory
FIGURE 2.6 (a) WSN usingAtmega 128 MC. FIGURE 2.6 (b) WSN using MSP430MC.
Like Figure 2.6(a), the Figure 2.6(b) sensor node uses 802.15.4 wireless
sensor communications in the 2.4GHz ISM band and provides support
for secure radio communications at 250kbps. This board provides onboard
sensing for humidity, temperature, and light as well as an expansion connec-
tor for other sensing devices, displays, and digital peripherals. The Figure
2.6(b) node is powered by an 8MHz Texas Instruments MSP 430 micro-
controller with lOkB of RAM and has 48kB of flash memory. It supports
a range of operating systems for wireless sensor nodes including TinyOS,
SOS, Mantis OS, and Contiki. The two node architectures both use a
single, central processor to which a number of additional components are

connected. Each node contains the identified transceiver and sensor units
(either directly or through use of expansion cards) and is powered by some
external energy source.
2.4 Modular Sensor Node Architectures

While the previous two commercial wireless sensor node architectures gen-
erally follow a similar design involving a single microcontroller and a number
of connected components, recent research has begun to consider alterna-
tive architectures for wireless sensor nodes. Such alternative architectures
are typically described as modular or layered architectures and offer a range
of benefits including energy conservation, knowledge reuse, and real-time
performance. The most prominent of these alternative architectures are
presented in the following sections.
Modular Architectures for Improved Power Management

This modular architecture aims to allow wireless sensor nodes to oper-
ate over a considerably larger power range than is generally supported
in commercial platforms. Traditional platforms typically support either
high or low power operation; the modular architecture is expected to
support a range from <1mW to >10W. To achieve such wide operational
power support, it is combined with both low- and higher-power com-
ponents in a configurable set of modules. Modules could be stacked in
a variety of configurations, allowing the production of an adaptable set
of wireless sensor nodes. High performance components could be uti-
lized when required, but the power consumption of each module always
reflects their role within the overall system and each consumes minimal
power when unused. Every module within a stack contains a low-power,
always-on, slowly clocked microcontroller directed over an I2C bus for
the purposes of power management, module discovery, and channel
allocation.
The modular architecture failed to meet the originally intended low
power requirements (due to a combination of factors including discrepan-
cies between actual power consumption and datasheet-based predictions,
power drainage during wake-up, and ADC performance), but the system
did demonstrate that a modular design can reduce power consumption by
removing the burden of power management from the central processor.
c) Tracker / Imager
a) Radio Relay
Radio Module Power/
Radio
Battery Sensor+DSP
Power / Solar
FPGA/Imager Embedded
Processor Compact Flash
b) Acoustic Tripwire Radio Module

Power/Battery Sensor+DSP
FIGURE 2.7 Modular architecture.
Modular Architectures for Improved Development

A modular sensor platform in Figure 2.8 is used to reduce the repeti-
tion involved in developing knowledge and infrastructures for sensor
networks. The stack enables creation of sensor nodes through the combi-
nation of a master board and a series of other boards with specific sensing
modalities communicating through a time division multiplexing (TDMA)
scheme.
A number of applications have been developed using “The Stack” for
their underlying node architecture. When compared against existing tech-
nologies for this purpose, nodes developed with “The Stack” produced an
almost identical result set at a considerably lower cost and in real time.
The advantages of modular sensor architectures are for improving flexibil-
ity, adaptability, and the redesign process. These divide sensor node func-
tionality into four layers: communication, processing, power supply, and
sensing/actuating. Each layer of the architecture may have any number of
implementations which may be reused or interchanged when developing
new applications. Furthermore, within a single WSN application, mul-
tiple heterogeneous nodes may interact despite their differing hardware
composition.
Interchangeability of layers was facilitated through use of standard
physical and electrical interfaces creating vertical connections. Each imple-
mentation of any layer of the architecture provides the required connec-
tors in a standard location, allowing layers to be quickly and easily slotted
together to create connections.
Sensing
μC FPGA
μC FPG
A
Processing
Power supply
Communication
FIGURE 2.8 Interchangeability of modules using the four-layer node architecture.
Modular Architectures for Improved Performance

A more complex modular sensor node architecture provides a reconfigurable
node platform with additional provision for real-time processing. It uses a
combination of serial and parallel commumcations to provide a scalable high-
performance bus, controlled using TDMA by complex programmable logic
devices (CPLDs). The use of both serial and parallel commumcations pro-
vides support for high-performance real-time point-to-point and multipoint-
to-point exchanges, while provision of a dedicated CPLD on each module
for communications allows the module’s central processor to engage in asyn-
chronous communication allowing processing to continue on real-time tasks.
8-bit CPLD daisy chain

I2C configuration Multiplexed 24-bit CPLD parallel bus
buses serial buses
FIGURE 2.9 More complex modular sensor node architecture.
In particular, the communication channel architecture used by the Figure 2.9

node is particularly efficient, improving throughput and reducing end-to-end
communication delays when compared against more traditional solutions.
2.5 Pic Node Architecture

The previously described architectures all utilize the concept of modularity
to improve upon existing wireless sensor node platforms. Each of the archi-
tectures divides a wireless sensor node into multiple modules or layers to
provide some benefit (for example, reduced power consumption, knowledge
reuse, or real-time capabilities). While a small number of the architectures
were developed with multiple goals in mind, each had a primary area of focus
to which their architecture was tailored. The PIC farm architecture aims to
develop a modular architecture that goes some way to meet each of the goals
of the previous platforms.
Transceiver Unit Audio

Sensing Unit
Processing Unit
Transceiver Localization
Sensors Processor Unit
Processor
Processor
ADC Image
Encryption Unit Processing Unit Localization
Processor
Hardware
Processor
Processor
FIGURE 2.10 A selection of potential PIC farm components.
The PIC Farm project envisages the development of a pool of readily avail-
able off-the-shelf modules [Figure 2.10] which can be assembled in a “plug
and play” or “Lego style” manner [Figure 2.11]. Each module would encap-
sulate some aspect of wireless sensor node functionality, providing both the
required hardware and software. For example, a radio transceiver module
might include a transceiver device alongside a small microcontroller pro-
grammed to control the operation of the radio, including hardware features
such as power management and application-specific features such as the
encapsulation of data into a given format.
While many of the existing research platforms combine multiple net-
working interfaces (for example, use of SPI and I2C technologies), the PIC
farm project uses a more minimal approach suggesting use of a single data
bus. For the purposes of this research the selected network technology is
I2C, but it is assumed that any technology can be used as long as it meets
the requirements of all intended exchanges within a node. Restriction of the
networking capabilities in this way reduces the cost and complexity of node
hardware with the intention of providing a more lightweight architecture
than some of those described thus far.
Sensing Unit Transceiver

Camera Unit
Tranceiver
ADC
Processor
Processor
Image Encryption
Processing Unit
Unit Processor
Processor
FIGURE 2.11 A possible PIC farm node configuration assembled from four “off the shelf ”
modules connected by a single data bus (power source not shown).
For the purposes of development and evaluation, the project required assem-
bly of a specific PIC farm architecture. A dummy PIC farm node was assembled
using three PIC 16F88 chips. Although not connected to sensor node compo-
nents such as a radio and transceiver, each chip was intended to function as if
part of a PIC farm unit, simulating functionality such as sensing, encryption,
and transmission.
Component Selection
The PIC Farm board was assembled from the following components:
PIC 16F88
The PIC Farm aims to support distributed processing within a wireless
sensor node. For this reason, development of the dummy node utilized
multiple low capability PIC microcontrollers. While the PIC Farm
project should be extendable to configurations composed of multiple
different chips, the dummy node was assembled from three identical
16F88 processors. The PIC Farm dummy node is intended to simulate
a simple wireless sensor node in which three core functionalities are
required:
Sensing
An abstract sensing functionality is required. Such functionality should
potentially represent any sensing activity: from the very simple (e.g., tem-
perature sensing) to the more complex (e.g., visual, camera-based sensing).
Radio operations
It is assumed that the wider sensor network within which the dummy node
is considered to operate utilizes some form of radio transmissions. For this
reason, the dummy node should simulate radio operations.
Processing
Wireless sensor nodes vary in the processing provision required: a node
within a security conscious network may require encryption while others
with complex sensors may require specialized data analysis (for example,
face detection, audio localization). The dummy node aims to simulate an
abstract processing operation which could represent a variety of tasks.
The identification of the three core functionalities resulted in the deci-
sion to include three PICs within the dummy node: each chip can potentially
represent any one of the required functionalities. The PIC devices are cheap,
low capability, low power microcontrollers (compared to popular alterna-
tives for wireless sensor node architectures, for example, the MSP 430 con-
sumes 150-300 μA at 1 MHz while a low end PIC consumes around 76 μA at
the same frequency), making them an ideal selection for a distributed sensor
node architecture. The 16F88 [Figure 2.12] is a low to mid range PIC device
providing the smallest possible memory and processing requirements for
the intended implementation at a low cost while ensuring minimal resource
wastage. In addition, the selected devices provide support for a number of
networking technologies including hardware support for I2C.
a) b) RA2/AN2/CVREF/VREF- RA1/AN1
RA3/AN3/CVREF+/C1OUT RA0/AN0
RA4/AN4/T0CKI/C2OUT RA7/OSC1/CLK1
RA6/OSC2/CLKO
RA5/MCLR/VPP
VSS VDD
RB7/AN6/PGD/T1OSI
RB0/INT/CCP1(1)
RB6/AN5/PGC/
RB1/SDI/SDA T1OSO/T1CK1
RB2/SDO/RX/DT RB5/SS/TX/CK
RB3/PGM/CCP1(1) RB4/SCK/SCL
FIGURE 2.12 The PIC 16F88: a) Photograph of the device b) Pin allocations for the device.
LED output
For each PIC on the board, an array of three LEDs was supplied for debug/
output purposes.
In addition to the three LED arrays associated with the processors on
the board, an additional LED array was connected to the MAC bus (see as
follows) to allow easy debugging. Although not representative of any sen-
sor node component, the presence of the LEDs facilitated the PIC Farm
development process. Each LED on the board was connected to a resistor to
limit current consumption. While the use of LEDs provides very limited
output, they are considerably simpler than some alternative output mecha-
nisms (for example, LCD displays or external memory). The simplicity of
LEDs as a method of output allowed easy output even in the early stages
of development.
Push button input
In addition to the LED outputs, the dummy node was equipped with a
push button input component purely for development purposes. While a
typical wireless sensor node would be expected to operate independently of
any user and would therefore not be equipped with such input, the dummy
node was required to demonstrate developed functionality in response to
user input in order to confirm that the expected behavior occurred. The
button was connected to a single device and was generally used for the
purpose of generating new tasks. For example, while developing the MAC
mechanism, the appropriate node was programmed to lock the bus for a
period of time in response to a button press. Use of a push button for this
purpose was ideal, as it was considerably simpler than many other forms of
input device (e.g., microphone, light sensor).
Shared external oscillator
A crystal oscillator was used to provide a common clock source for all devices.
While the PIC Farm does not require such synchronization and should sup-
port cooperation between devices clocked by separate sources (potentially
even at different speeds), use of a common source in this manner simplified
the process of clocking the devices and reduced hardware requirements.
I 2C communication bus
To enable communication between the PIC processors, each device is con-
nected to an I2C bus on pins B1 and B4. The I2C bus is intended for data
exchange using the RPC mechanism.
Medium access control (MAC) bus

As the I2C bus depends on the sharing of a communication medium between
multiple devices, some form of access control is required. The PIC farm
node uses an out-band medium access control (MAC) bus, separate to the
I2C medium, for the purpose of ensuring effective use of the shared medium.
Traditional wireless sensor nodes follow a centralized architecture in which
components are managed by a single microcontroller. Recent research has
considered a number of modular architectures for sensor nodes; such archi-
tectures are typically designed with a single specific improvement in mind, for
example knowledge reuse or energy efficiency. The PIC Farm project aims to
build upon existing work by developing a simple, flexible architecture in which
self-contained functional blocks can be assembled in a “Lego style” manner
to quickly create a variety of wireless sensor nodes appropriately tailored to
their intended application. To consider the viability of such an architecture,
a dummy node has been developed using the modular architecture proposed
by the PIC farm using three low-power, low -capability PIC microcontrollers.
2.6 IMote Node Architecture

The IMote sensor node architecture is a multi-purpose architecture
(Figure 2.13) consisting of
1. A power management subsystem,
2. A processor subsystem,
3. A sensing subsystem,
4. A communication subsystem, and
5. An interfacing subsystem.
Amultiple-sensor board of the IMote Node architecture contains
(Figure 2.14):
A12-bit, four channel ADC
• A high-resolution temperature/humidity sensor
• A low-resolution digital temperature sensor
• A light sensor
• The I2C bus is used to connect low data rate sources
• The SPI bus is used to interface high data rate sources
GPIOs
802.15.4 30 MB 2xSPI
SMA Flash 3xUART
radio 2
IC
SDIO
32 MB I/O USB host
SDRAM USBclient
CPU Core A G97
256x8 Camera
SRAM
DSP Power RTC

management
Supply Battery
Charger
FIGURE 2.13 The IMote node architecture.
The processing subsystem provides

• Main processor (microprocessor)
• Operates in low voltage (0.85v) and low frequency (13MHz) mode
• Dynamic voltage scaling (104MHz–416MHz)
• Sleep and deep sleep modes
• Thus enabling low power operation
• Coprocessor (a DSP)
• Accelerates multimedia operations—computation intensive
SPI
Humidity 3D Power regulator

GPIO Temperature Accelerometer
External Connector
ADC Temperature Light
I2 C
FIGURE 2.14 The IMote node architecture.

2.7 XYZ Node Architecture

It consists of the four subsystems:
1. Power subsystem
2. Communication subsystem
3. Mobility subsystem
4. Sensor subsystem
Communication subsystem Intertial

String Tracker
3.3v 802.15.4 XB ee Pro on/off Camera
INT
Mobility Subsystem
Power
Power Core: 2.5V
Sub Tracking H-bridge Geared Motor
system Interface I/O:
3.3v 2.5 v 3.3V
Voltage Light Sensors Array Sensor
Regulator Subsystem
Core CPU
On/Off Thermometer
Battery Supervisor Accelerometer

I2C
wake up
GPIO & Peripheral Connectors SRAM
256Kx16
FIGURE 2.15 The XYZ node architecture.
The processor subsystem is based on the ARM7TDMI core microcontroller

• Fmax = 58MHz
• Two different modes (32bits and 16bits)
• Provides an on-chip memory of 4KB boot ROM and a 32KB RAM
• Can be extended by up to 512KB of flash memory
Peripheral components:
• DMA controller
• Four 10-bit ADC inputs
• Serial ports (RS232, SPI, I2C, SIO)

• 42 multiplexed general purpose I/O pins
The communication subsystem is connected to the processing subsystem

through an SPI interface.
RF transceiver
When an RF message has been successfully received, the SPI interface
enables the radio to wake up a sleeping processor. The processor subsystem
controls the commumcation subsystem by either turning it off or putting it
in sleep mode.
2.8 Hogthrob Node Architecture

It is designed for a specific application, namely, to monitor pig production.
Motivation
• Monitors movements of a sow to predict onset of estrus
• So that appropriate care can be given for pregnant sows
• Detecting cough or limping to monitor illness
The processing subsystems consist of:

• Microcontroller
Performs less complex, less energy-intensive tasks
Initializes the FPGA and functions as an external timer and an
ADC converter
• Field Programmable Gate Array
Executes the sow monitoring application
Coordinates the functions of the sensor node
There are a number of interfaces supported by the processing subsystem,
including:
• The I2C interface for the sensing subsystem
• The SPI interface for the communication subsystem
• The JTAG interface for in-system programmability and debugging

• The serial (RS232) interface for interaction with a PC
J S
P
T I
A
Processor G
Subsystem U
FPGA Core A
UART R
T
CLK CLK
48MHz 1.2V 2.5V 4MHz Bus
Exchange
AT Mega 128L MCU Switch
Program Flash S
Communication System
UART P S
I P
I
AVR Processor
Care U
U A
I2C A R
Sensing
Subsystem R T
SRAM T
ADC JTAG
CLK LED 3v
8MHz
FIGURE 2.16 The Hogthrob node architecture.
Summary
• Wireless sensor nodes are the essential building blocks in a wireless
sensor network for sensing, processing, and communication.
• The sensing subsystem integrates all kinds of sensors needed to
measure the parameters.
• Von Neumann architecture provides a single memory space for
storing program instructions and data.
• Harvard architecture provides separate memory spaces for storing

program instructions and data.
• Microcontrollers integrate the components such as the CPU core;
volatile memory (RAM) for data storage; ROM, EPROM, EEPROM,
or Flash memory; parallel I/O interfaces; discrete input and
output bits; clock generator; one or more internal analog-to-digital
converters; and serial communications interfaces.
• A wireless sensor node is composed of four basic components:
sensing unit, processing unit (microcontroller), transceiver unit, and
power unit.
• The IMote sensor node architecture is a multi-purpose architecture
consisting of power management subsystem, processor subsystem,
sensing subsystem, communication subsystem, and interfacing
subsystem.
• The XYZ Node Architecture consists of the four subsystems known as
power subsystem, communication subsystem, mobility subsystem, and
sensor subsystem.
Questions
1. Draw the architecture of a wireless sensor node.
2. What is a sensing subsystem?
3. Give some of the sensors and their application areas.
4. Write about an analog to digital converter.
5. What are 3 basic architectures of a processor subsystem?
6. What is Von Neumann architecture? Draw its blocks.
7. What is Harvard architecture? Draw its blocks.
8. What is Super-Harvard architecture? Draw its blocks.
9. List advantages and disadvantages of microcontrollers.
10. List advantages and disadvantages of Digital signal Processors.
11. List advantages and disadvantages of ASIC.
12. List advantages and disadvantages of FPGA.
13. What are the communication interfaces used in nodes?

14. Write different modes of serial peripheral interface.
15. Write a short note on IIC Inter-Integrated circuits.
16. Compare SPI and IIC.
17. Explain with the help of a diagram the components of wireless sensor
node architecture.
18. Draw the diagram of two different common sensor node architec-
tures.
19. With a diagram explain about the modular sensor node architectures.
20. Draw PIC node architecture and explain each block.
21. Explain about IMote Node architecture with the help of a diagram.
22. Explain about XYZ Node architecture with the help of a diagram.
23. Explain about Hogthrob Node architecture with the help of a
diagram.
Further Reading
1. Wireless Sensor Networks: Architectures and Protocol by Edgar H.
Callaway Jr.
2. Fundamentals of Wireless Sensor Networks Theory and Practice by
Waltenegus Dargie and Christian Poellabauer
3. Protocols and Architecture for Wireless Sensor Networks by Holger Karl
and Andreas Willig.
References
1. http://www3.nd.edu/~cpoellab/teaching/cse40815/Chapter3.pdf
2. http://comp.ist.utl.pt/ece-wsn/doc/slides/sensys-ch2-single-node.pdf
CHAPTER
3
SOFTWARE ARCHITECTURE
This chapter mainly discusses the software architectures used in
wireless sensor networks.
3.1 Introduction to Software Architecture

Wireless sensor networks are aggregates of numerous small sensor nodes.
Each node can send messages through the network to the information sink
or ultimate controlling device. The nodes can also forward messages from
other nodes, perform network organization tasks, and complete a variety of
other functions.
The applications of WSNs vary widely. WSNs could be used in indus-
trial settings for machine control and environment monitoring. Other appli-
cations could be medical monitoring of a patient’s health from a variety of
perspectives. The military is highly interested in sensor networks for intel-
ligence gathering, while WSNs have possible applications in aerospace for
the structural integrity of planes.
The sensor units contain several types of sensors for measuring tem-
perature, light, acceleration, angular velocity, geo-orientation, and so on.
A microcontroller or programmable logic device, combined with A/D con-
verters, collects and processes the sensor signals and assembles sensor data
and control frames. A serial interface connects the sensor unit to a radio
module, which converts the sensor data frames to radio mes sages and
sends them to the gateway.
All radio modules within a given range establish a wireless sensor network
(WSN). The IEEE 802.15.4 / Zigbee standard is one of the most promising
candidates for designing WSNs which need to be self-organized and self-
healing, that is, nodes automatically establish and maintain connectivity among
themselves. Mesh networking protocols provide new capabilities where each

node operates not only as a direct source or sink, but also as a message forwarder
for other nodes that do not have direct connectivity with their communication
peers. Providing reliable wireless connectivity, stability, and scalability, while
at the same time coping with the limitations imposed by low cost, battery-
powered sensor nodes presents a multitude of challenging research problems.
3.2 Operating System (OS) Requirements

The following are the requirements of an operating system used for a wire-
less sensor network.
• Small physical size and low power consumption
Devices have limited memory and power resources
• Concurrency intensive operation
Need to be able to service packets on the fly in real time
• Limited hardware parallelism and controller hierarchy
Limited number and capability of controllers
Unsophisticated processor memory switch level interconnect
• Diversity in design and usage
Provide a high degree of software modularity for application
specific sensors
• Robust Operation
OS should be reliable, and assist applications in surviving individual
device failures
3.3 Wireless Sensor Network Characteristics

The concept of wireless sensor networks implies a number of WSN char-
acteristics which heavily influence the software architecture. Specifically,
WSNs must be self organizing, perform cooperative processing, energy
optimized, and modular. These four requirements in particular impact
heavily on the form of the software architecture.
1. Self organization
The large number of nodes in a WSN renders direct manipulation by a user
for network organization impractical. A user could not go through thousands
Software Architecture • 79
of nodes directing the network configuration and clustering. Subsequently,

the nodes must be capable of organizing the network and partitioning it for
efficient operation given the environment and network attributes.
Additionally, the nodes of a sensor network must be robust. The aggre-
gate formed by the nodes must have a high up time. The large number
of nodes in a network along with unattended operation complicates any
attempt at a fault tolerant design. Sensor networks with wired connections
do not necessarily rely on other nodes to transmit data. This reduces the need
for redundancy and the robustness of individual nodes.
In contrast, wireless sensor network nodes transmit information from
node to node with a small amount of processing in between. Consequently,
individual nodes must be highly robust, while the organization of the net-
work must tolerate individual device failure. Variations in the network
topology can affect the degree of network vulnerability to failures, neces
sitating complex routines to implement fault tolerance.
2. Concurrency, Cooperative Processing
The nodes in a network primarily direct information flow through the net-
work to various data sinks, the points to which data from the network is
fed. Each sensor node may possess a limited amount of memory, so the
buffering of data is impractical. Additionally, the node performs a number
of simultaneous operations: capturing, processing, and transmitting sensor
data, while simultaneously forwarding data from other nodes in multi-hop
or bridging situations.
WSNs also provide a unique opportunity for cooperative processing.
Cooperative processing can reduce network traffic through data aggrega-
tion and preprocessing. For example, the establishment of a wireless net-
work might involve the triangulation of a new node when it joins a network
to establish the node’s position.
3. Energy Efficiency
Wired sensor networks have the luxury of external power sources, such as
power over the Ethernet. The nodes of wireless networks have no prac-
tical way of utilizing an external energy source, which would in any case
be contrary to the point of a WSN. A sensor network may also be distrib-
uted in hostile or remote environments. Energy efficiency dictates the
minimization of communication between nodes. Therefore, the choice of
protocols and network configuration are key in terms of network life span.
Protocol-related energy savings are directly related to the physical, link,

and network layers.
Additional power savings come from an operating system (OS) for
the nodes which supports advanced power management and lower power
task scheduling. Power sensitive task scheduling can minimize power use
through nonlinear battery effects. Advanced power management would put
any hardware not in use to sleep, minimizing power consumption.
4. Modularity
Sensor nodes in a network tend to be specific, and therefore contain only the
hardware needed for the application. The range of possible applications dic-
tates a large variance in the hardware required for sensor nodes. Accordingly,
the software for the nodes must exhibit a high degree of modularity.
3.4 Software Architecture Components

The nature of a sensor network lends itself to a service-oriented,
component-based framework. Applications split into sensor, node, and
network applications, providing the basis for fundamental application layers
in a sensor network.
Sensor applications interface with the sensors, local data, and hardware
on a node, along with the operating system. Sensor applications form the
base layer and provide the basic functions of a sensor node.
Node applications use the basic functions provided by sensor applica-
tions to perform middleware tasks for network buildup, maintenance, and
localization. Network applications deal with the services and tasks of the
network as a whole. Network applications thereby act as an interface to the
layer administrating to the network.
Middleware
Middleware refers “to the software layer between operating system and
sensor application on the one hand and the distributed application which
interacts over the network on the other hand.” The design of middleware
aims to be scalable, adaptive, generic, and reflective.
Scalable middleware performs optimization based on resource con-
straints at runtime. The nature of wireless sensor networks calls for light-
weight middleware, or middleware which has low communication and
computation requirements. By performing optimizations at runtime, the

interfaces of middleware are customized.
The sensor network changes as nodes move, necessitating runtime
adaptations of the middleware to exchange and run components as needed
by the application. Localized algorithms can be used to enhance system
scalability and robustness in the face of interactions between sensor nodes.
These algorithms can also provide reflective middleware, which changes
the behavior of layers on the fly instead of exchanging them.
Generic middleware attempts to reduce overhead imposed by using
generic interfaces for middleware components. This implies the custom-
ization of the application interfaces and features, allowing for interpreta-
tion by middleware and compile-time optimization. Generic interfaces
also allow for the standardization of system services to diverse applications.
Conversely, while middleware interfaces may be generic, the interfaces of
the application component on a specific sensor node are anything but. In
short, middleware acts as an abstraction layer to help hide software specifics
from the application layer.
A simple use case can help determine the software architecture. The
client application requests data from the network about surface conditions
in a certain area. The client first sends a request to a surrogate proxy for the
desired information. The proxy communicates with the appropriate nodes,
which in turn then determine the surface conditions in the area using coop-
erative algorithms. The proxy takes the information returned from the
nodes, translates it, and sends it back to the client.
Surface profile service Surrogate Host

Surface Profile?
Sensor C Service Proxy
Sensor B
Sensor A Bluetooth LAN
Physical Physical Client
Request Request
Reply
Reply
TCP/IP
Proprietary Protocol
FIGURE 3.1 Surrogate architecture in sensor networks.
Figure 3.1 illustrates the use case. Such architecture can be realized
using the node application structure shown in Figure 3.2, along with the
sensor network architecture shown in Figure 3.3.
Host Middleware
Algorithms Modules Services VM
Middleware Core
Node-specific Operating System
Hardware Drivers Sensor Driver
Hardware Sensor
FIGURE 3.2 Node application structures.
Figure 3.2 illustrates the division of node applications into three layers.
The lowest layer handles hardware specifics, such as hardware and sensor
drivers. The node operating system acts as a buffer layer between the hard-
ware specifics and the host middleware application layer. The operating
system layer handles the processes which relate strictly to the node opera-
tion, while the host middleware handles processes concerning the services
offered by the node to the network.
AdministrationTerminal
Sensor Network Application
Distributed Middleware
Node A Node B Node C

Middleware Middleware Middleware
Operating System Operating System Operating System
Hardware Hardware Hardware
FIGURE 3.3 Overall software architecture of a sensor net.

The middleware is comprised of four different components which

are called as needed, with the option to add additional modules for secu-
rity or routing. The VM or Virtual machine component enables platform
independent program execution, while algorithms define the behavior of
modules.
The general overall software architecture of the sensor net is shown in
Figure 3.3. The individual nodes interact with the distributed middleware
layer to perform the functions dictated by the sensor network application.
The administration terminal is a connection-point-independent external
actor which evaluates results from the sensor network application. The dia-
gram specifically illustrates the behavior of the sensor network application,
which cannot assign tasks to individual nodes. Instead the layer abstract
shown indicates that the distributed middleware handles tasks for the entire
network and acts as network service coordinator.
Architectural Issues
While the architecture presented certainly presents a solid and basic design
for a sensor network, it does not reflect some of the requirements such as
energy efficiency, which can be a significant effect of software architecture.
Network topology control in particular proves effective in extending net-
work life and increasing network capacity.
Additionally, the amount of energy available to each sensor cannot sup-
port long range communication, necessitating a tiered network structure.
The need for such a network structure then influences the software archi-
tecture design.
Finally, the use of a single tier architecture increases network load
on nodes surrounding the command node. The increased traffic on these
key nodes decreases their life span, and in turn shortens the life span of
the entire network. The adoption of a multi-tiered network structure can
reduce the energy consumption imbalance if the network supports suffi-
cient fault-tolerance.
3.5 A Cluster-Based, Service-Oriented Architecture

The factors mentioned above can influence the software architecture of a
wireless sensor network when taken into account. A second architecture
uses clustering to handle the factors mentioned and provide for application
of Quality of Service (QoS) management.
Architectural Description
One of the more favored network architectures for wireless sensor net-
works involves clustering. A cluster is a set of adjacent sensors which are
grouped together and interface with the rest of the network through a gate-
way, or cluster head. Gateways are higher energy nodes which maintain the
network in the cluster, perform data aggregation, and organize sensors into
subsets.
Clusters exhibit dynamic behavior. Clusters form and are modified on
the fly depending on conditions and node availability. During cluster for-
mation, one node is elected as the gateway. It is important to note that
while clusters can overlap spatially, one node cannot belong to multiple
clusters.
Distributed Cluster Middleware
Node A Node B Node C
Middleware Middleware Middleware
Operating Operating Operating

System System System
Hardware Hardware Hardware
FIGURE 3.4 Cluster-software-based architecture.
Given the presence of clustering, a cluster can be regarded as the base unit
for the software architecture. In this case, data collection would be per-
formed in a distributed manner. However, in order to dynamically manage
these clusters, the architecture of the middleware needs be fairly complex.
Figure 3.4 displays the software architecture at the cluster level. Figure 3.5
shows a cluster-based middleware architecture.
As shown in Figure 3.5, the architecture proposed contains an abstrac-
tion modeled as a Virtual Machine. The Virtual Machine provides the same
service as in the first architecture, that of hardware-independent program
execution. However, this Virtual Machine splits down into two additional
layers: the resource management layer and the cluster layer.
Applications
Application code,
specification Application results
QoS requirements resource usage, and
adaptation policies QoS statistics
QoS interpreter
Virtual machine
Resource
management Resource manager
layer
Resource description Cost models
Resource allocation
Cluster information and adaptation
Cluster
layer Cluster forming and control protocol
Data accessibility Sensor state control,

node capability knob settings,
network connectivity code allocation,
cluster control message
Sensor
network
FIGURE 3.5 Middleware architecture for cluster-based WSNs.
The cluster layer encompasses the distributed cluster middleware illus-

trated in Figure 3.4. This software layer forms clusters from the collection
of sensor nodes surrounding the target area. The exact factors controlling
the initial formation of clusters can vary depending on the application of
the sensor network, and do not have significant impact on the software
architecture.
The resource management layer controls resource allocation and
adaptation to meet QoS requirements for the sensor network application.
Resource management is an important part of QoS in distributed applica-
tions such as a wireless sensor network. Environmental and system changes
can affect the amount of available resources, requiring the middleware to

reallocate resources on the fly to accomplish the tasks given by the sensor
network application.
Architectural Issues
The cluster-based architecture proposed faces a number of challenges
inherent in its design. The more complicated network topology incurs
higher overhead costs for forming and maintaining clusters. Specifically,
clusters must be formed dynamically in order to track moving phenom-
ena. Therefore, nodes would be changing cluster membership depend-
ing on the speed of the target phenomena. Using clusters also increases
the vulnerability of the network to faults. If a gateway fails, the members
of the cluster must quickly deal with the fault by electing a new cluster
head or resorting to ad hoc networking to members of other clusters. The
more time is spent in network reconfiguration, the more data can be lost
due to memory limitations at the effected nodes. This behavior implies
an increased network vulnerability to the algorithms used for network
formation.
Overhead also comes from the resource management layer. In order
to effectively manage the resources of the network, the layer must gather
and update information on node energy levels, network connectivity, clus-
ter loads, and a number of other statistics. Such polling can result in a
dramatic increase to overhead if it is not handled correctly. Obviously the
amount of overhead depends on the exact implementation of the resource
management.
3.6 Software Development For Sensor Nodes

Sensor node software in particular lends itself well to an iterative form of
development. As with any real-time embedded system, the code must be
optimized to perform within certain parameters.
Due to the sensitivity of the performance, efficiency, and lifetime of
a WSN to the algorithms controlling network configuration, an iterative
design, implementation, and test phase is required. Since the applications
of WSNs vary so greatly, the algorithms involved in a specific type of WSN
must be optimized through a large amount of calculation and design.
The development pattern for node applications favors the highly itera-
tive design pattern shown in Figure 3.6. The design method closely follows
standard software engineering practices. Of note, component interface

optimization is performed during the design stage. Evaluation through the
monitoring of results leads to additional iterations. The development pat-
tern results in a specific application for the node comprised of specially
tailored parts.
Components
Design & Edit
Compile / Link
Evaluate
Node Software
FIGURE 3.6 Proposed node software development process.
Numerous software difficulties must be solved before wireless sensor net-

works may be considered a mature technology. Chief among these problems
stands the formation, creation, and testing of a robust, efficient software
architecture that can fulfill all of the goals and requirements needed. Tiny
OS and ZigBee are discussed in detail now.
3.7 Tiny OS
Tiny OS is a microthreaded OS that draws on previous work done for light-
weight thread support and efficient network interfaces. It is a two-level
scheduling structure, that is, with long-running tasks that can be inter-
rupted by hardware events and a small, tightly integrated design that allows
the crossover of software components into hardware. TinyOS was designed
by Berkeley. The following are the characteristics of TinyOS.
a. Provides a good framework

i. Concurrency intensive
ii. Efficient modularity
b. Self organizing
i. Large numbers of nodes
1. Robust operation—no redundancy
ii. Fault tolerance—If a node fails, will the network recover?
c. Concurrency and Cooperative processing
i. Limited memory
ii. Triangulation
iii. Sensor data acquisition, processing, targeting—data aggregation
d. Energy efficiency
i. Nodes in a WSN have limited power supplies
ii. Hostile Environments
iii. Architecture can play a large role
iv. Power sensitive task scheduling
e. Modularity
i. The actual hardware of the nodes may vary, for example, temp sen-
sors, hall effect, proximity, and so on.
ii. While the drivers and software on each node may be specific, the
interface presented to the distributed software should be generic.
f. Client
i. Connects at any place on the network
g. Sensor Application
i. Requests certain information from the network
h. Network software
i. Handles request, maintenance, and so forth.
i. Node-specific software and hardware
j. Middleware
i. “The software layer between operating system and sensor applica-
tion on the one hand and the distributed application which inter-
acts over the network on the other hand.”
ii. In essence, the complexity and layer architecture of the middle-
ware defines the software architecture of the entire system.
k. Scalable
i. Should perform optimization based on resource constraints at run-
time
l. Adaptive
i. Changes in the network and event under observation call for change.
ii. Network restructuring
a. Distributed application task reallocation
b. Supports scalability and robustness
m.Reflective
i. Changes the actual behavior of layers on the fly
a. Example: The modification of the routing strategy depending
on mobility
n. Generic
i. Standard or generic interfaces between middleware components
ii. Customizes application interfaces
It covers the basic TinyOS abstractions, such as hardware abstractions,
communication, timers, the scheduler, booting, and initialization.
Platforms/Hardware Abstraction
Hardware abstractions in TinyOS generally follow a three-level
abstraction hierarchy, called the HAA (Hardware Abstraction
Architecture).
At the bottom of the HAA is the HPL (Hardware Presentation Layer).
The HPL is a thin software layer on top of the raw hardware, presenting
hardware such as IO pins or registers as nesC interfaces. The middle of the
HAA is the HAL (Hardware Abstraction Layer). The HAL builds on top
of the HPL and provides higher-level abstractions that are easier to use
than the HPL but still provide the full functionality of the underlying hard-
ware. The top of the HAA is the HIL (Hardware Independent Layer). The
HIL builds on top of the HAL and provides abstractions that are hardware
independent. This generalization means that the HIL usually does not pro-
vide all of the functionality that the HAL can. TinyOS supports platforms
such as eyesIFXv2, intelmote2, mica2, mica2dot, micaZ, telosb, tinynode,
btnode3, and so on.
Scheduler
The TinyOS scheduler has a non-preemptive FIFO policy. In TinyOS,
every task has its own reserved slot in the task queue, and a task can only be
posted once. A post fails if and only if the task has already been posted. If a
component needs to post a task multiple times, it can set an internal state
variable so that when the task executes, it reposts itself.
This slight change in semantics greatly simplifies a lot of component
code. Rather than test to see if a task is posted already before posting it, a
component can just post the task. Components do not have to try to recover
from failed posts and retry. The cost is one byte of state per task. Applications
can also replace the scheduler, if they wish. This allows programmers to try
new scheduling policies, such as priority- or deadline-based. It is important
to maintain non-preemptiveness, however, or the scheduler will break all
nesC’s static concurrency analysis.
Booting/Initialization
TinyOS has interface StdControl split into two interfaces: Init and
StdControl. The latter only has two commands: start and stop. In TinyOS,
wiring components to the boot sequence would cause them to be powered
up and started at boot. That is no longer the case: the boot sequence only
initializes components. When it has completed initializing the scheduler,
hardware, and software, the boot sequence signals the Boot.booted event.
The top-level application component handles this event and start services
accordingly.
Virtualization
TinyOS is written with nesC, which introduces the concept of a “generic”
or instantiable component. Generic modules allow TinyOS to have reusable
data structures, such as bit vectors and queues, which simplify develop-
ment. More importantly, generic configurations allow services to encapsu-
late complex wiring relationships for clients that need them.
Timers
TinyOS provides a much richer set of timer interfaces. Timers are one of
the most critical abstractions a mote OS can provide, and so expands the
fidelity and form that timers take. Depending on the hardware resources of
a platform, a component can use 32KHz as well as millisecond granularity
timers, and the timer system may provide one or two high-precision timers
that fire asynchronously (they have the async keyword). Components can
query their timers for how much time remaining before they fire, and can
start timers in the future (e.g., “start firing a timer at 1Hz starting 31ms
from now”). Timers present a good example of virtualization.
Communication
In TinyOS, the message buffer type is message_t, and it is a buffer that is
large enough to hold a packet from any of a node’s communication inter-
faces. The structure itself is completely opaque: a component cannot ref-
erence its fields. Instead, all buffer accesses go through interfaces. Send
interfaces distinguish the addressing mode of communication abstractions.
Active messages are the network HIL. A platform’s ActiveMessageC com-
ponent defines which network interface is the standard communication
medium. For example, a mica2 defines the CC1000 active message layer
as ActiveMessageC, while the TMote defines the CC2420 active message
layer as ActiveMessageC.
There is no longer a TOS_UART_ADDRESS for active message communi-
cation. Instead, a component should wire to SerialActiveMessageC, which
provides active message communication over the serial port.
Active message communication is virtualized through four generic compo-
nents, which take the AM type as a parameter: AMSenderC, AMReceiverC,
AMSnooperC, and AMSnooping ReceiverC. AMSenderC is virtualized in
that the call to send() does not fail if some other component is sending.
Instead, it fails only if that particular AMSenderC already has a packet out-
standing or if the radio is not in a sending state. Underneath, the active
message system queues and sends these outstanding packets.
Sensors
In TinyOS, named sensor components comprise the HIL of a platform’s
sensors. If a component needs high-frequency or very accurate sampling, it
must use the HAL, which gives it the full power of the underlying platform.
Error Codes
In TinyOS the return code is error_t, whose values include SUCCESS,
FAIL, EBUSY, and ECANCEL. Interface commands and events define
which error codes they may return and why.
Arbitration
Basic abstractions, such as packet communication and timers, can
be virtualized. The most pressing example of this is a shared bus on a
microcontroller. Many different systems like sensors, storage, and the

radio might need to use the bus at the same time, so some way of arbitrat-
ing access is needed.
To support these kinds of abstractions, TinyOS introduces the resource
interface, which components use to request and acquire shared resources,
and arbiters, which provide a policy for arbitrating access between multiple
clients. For some abstractions, the arbiter also provides a power manage-
ment policy, as it can tell when the system is no longer needed and can be
safely turned off.
Power Management
Power management is divided into two parts: the power state of the
microcontroller and the power state of devices. Microcontroller Power
Management is computed in a chip-specific manner by examining which
devices and interrupt sources are active. TinyOS provides low-power
stacks for the CC1000 (mica2) and CC2420 (micaz, telosb, imote2)
radios. Both use a low-power listening approach, where transmitters
send long preambles or repeatedly send packets and receivers wake
up periodically to sense the channel to hear if there is a packet being
transmitted.
Network Protocols
TinyOS provides simple reference implementations of two of the most
basic protocols used in mote networks: dissemination and collection.
Dissemination reliably delivers small (fewer than 20 byte) data items to
every node in a network, while collection builds a routing tree rooted at a
sink node. Together, these two protocols enable a wide range of data col-
lection applications. Collection has advanced significantly since the most
recent beta release; experimental tests in multiple network conditions have
seen very high (>98%) delivery rates as long as the network is not saturated.
Software development platforms need to be power-consumption aware,
and miserly on memory usage and processing power.
TinyOS, the operating system that runs on motes, is component-based
in that you ‘assemble’ components that you need into the deployed pro-
gram. These components handle radio communication, sending messages,
taking of measurements, timing, and LEDs. Figure 3.7 shows the internal
component graphware and Figure 3.8 shows an sample application for tem-
perature and light measurement.
application Ad hoc Routing Application
Active Messages
packet
Radio Packet Serial Packet Temp SW
byte
Radio byte UART I2C Photo HW
bit
RFM Clocks
FIGURE 3.7 Internal component graphware.
Sensing application
application
Routing Layer
routing
messaging Messaging Layer
packet Radio packet
byte Radio byte (MAC) Photo Temp SW
bit RFM Clocks ADC IIC HW
FIGURE 3.8 An example application.
3.8 ZigBee
There are many wireless monitoring and control applications for industrial
and home markets which require longer battery life, lower data rates, and
less complexity than is available from existing wireless standards. These
standards provide higher data rates at the expense of power consump-
tion, application complexity, and cost. What these markets need, in many
cases, is a standards-based wireless technology having the performance
characteristics that closely meet the requirements for reliability, security,

low power, and low cost. This standards-based, interoperable wireless tech-
nology will address the unique needs of low data rate wireless control and
sensor-based networks.
For such wireless applications, a standard has been developed by the
IEEE: “The IEEE 802.15 Task Group 4 is chartered to investigate a low
data rate solution with multi-month to multi-year battery life and very
low complexity. It is intended to operate in an unlicensed, international
frequency band.” Potential applications are home automation, wireless
sensors, interactive toys, smart badges, and remote controls. The scope of
the task group is to define the physical layer (PHY) and the media access
controller (MAC). A graphical representation of the areas of responsibility
between the IEEE standard, ZigBee Alliance, and User is presented in
Figure 3.9.
APPLICATION / PROFILES User Defined
APPLICATION FRAMEWORK
ZigBee
NETWORK / SECURITY Alliance
LAYERS
MAC LAYER
IEEE
PHY LAYER
FIGURE 3.9 IEEE 802.15.4 Stack.
Since total system cost is a key factor for industrial and home wireless appli-
cations, a highly integrated single-chip approach is the preferred solution of
semiconductor manufacturers developing IEEE 802.15.4 compliant trans-
ceivers. The IEEE standard at the PHY is the significant factor in deter-
mining the RF architecture and topology of ZigBee-enabled transceivers
currently sampling. Generally, CMOS is the desired technology to integrate
both analog circuitry and high gate count digital circuitry for lower cost
with the challenge being RF performance.
For these optimized short-range wireless solutions, the other key
elements above the Physical and MAC Layer are the Network/Security
Layers for sensor and control integration. The ZigBee Alliance is in the
process of defining the characteristics of these layers for star, mesh, and
cluster tree topologies. The performance of these networks will complement
the IEEE standard while meeting the requirements for low complexity and
low power.
IEEE 802.15.4 Overview
The IEEE 802.15.4 standard defines two PHYs representing three license-
free frequency bands that include sixteen channels at 2.4 GHz, ten chan-
nels at 902 to 928 MHz, and one channel at 868 to 870 MHz. The maximum
data rates for each band are 250 kbps, 40 kbps, and 20 kbps respectively.
The 2.4 GHz band operates worldwide, while the sub-1 GHz band oper-
ates in North America, Europe, and Australia/New Zealand, as in Table 3.1.
The IEEE standard is intended to conform to established regulations in
Europe, Japan, Canada, and the United States.
Table 3.1 Frequency Bands and Data Rates
PHY Frequency Channel Spreading Data Parameters

Band Numbering Parameters
Chip Modulation Bit Rate Symbol Modulation
Rate Rate
868/ 915 868-870 0 300 BPSK 20 kb/s 20 kbaud BPSK
MHz MHz kchip/s
902-928 1 to 10 600 BPSK 40kb/s 40 kbaud BPSK
MHz kchip/s
2.4 GHz 24-2.4835 llto26 20M O-QPSK 250 kb/s 62.5 16-ary
GHz chip/s kbaud Orthogonal
Both PHYs use the Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum (DSSS). The
modulation type in the 2.4 GHz band is O-QPSK with a 32 PN-code length
and an RF bandwidth of 2 MHz. In the sub-1 GHz bands, BPSK modulation
is used with a 15 PN-code length and operates in an RF bandwidth of
600 kHz in Europe and 1200 kHz in North America.
RF Design Considerations
A representative sub-1 GHz transceiver is shown in Figure 3.10. The IC
contains a 900 MHz physical layer (PHY) and portion of the media access
controller (hardware-MAC). The remaining MAC functions (software-
MAC) and the application layer are executed on an external microcontroller.
All PHY functions are integrated on the chip with minimal external com-
ponents required for a complete radio. A low-cost crystal is used as a ref-
erence for the PLL and to clock the digital circuitry. To optimize energy
consumption in sleep mode while still keeping an accurate time base, a Real
Time Clock reference can be used.
ZMD44101
Complete PHY Thin Application specific

HW- Controller / Sensor
digital MAC
analog
Digital Rx Framing Additional
1.Synchronization Error MAC
Analog Receiver Detection
2.Despreading functions
3.Demodulation (CRC)
Duty (Protocol
4.Digital filtering Cycle implemen
Power Host tation)
PLL Dedicated DSP interface
Manager SPI/ Upper layer
functions
Parallel functionality
(application
Digital Tx Registers interfaces,
Analog 1.Spreading Sensors)
Transmitter 2.Pulse shaping
FIGURE 3.10 Sub-IGHZ transceiver block diagram.
The analog portion of the receiver converts the desired signal from RF to
the digital baseband. Synchronization, dispreading, and demodulation are
done in the digital portion of the receiver. The digital part of the transmit-
ter does the spreading and baseband filtering, whereas the analog part of
the transmitter does the modulation and conversion to RE The three main
analog blocks — the direct-conversion receiver, direct-conversion transmit-
ter, and fractional-N PLL—are discussed as follows.
The choice of the receiver architecture is mainly a compromise between
performance, cost (considering both silicon area and external components),
and power consumption. A direct-conversion receiver (DCR) architecture
(or Zero-IF architecture) was selected as there is no image frequency and
IF filtering required. Further advantages are that the channel select filters
are low-pass filters, instead of band-pass filters, and the baseband frequency
is the lowest possible. The DCR architecture provides the additional ben-
efits of lower cost, complexity, and power consumption.
The transmitter architecture is also direct-conversion. Since BPSK
modulation is used, only one baseband path is required. A differential
architecture was used to minimize common mode noise. The output can be
single-ended or differential. The single-ended output was selected for the
advantages of lower cost, an on-chip TR switch, and the elimination of the
requirement for an external balun.
Table 3.1 shows the channel allocation in the sub-1 GHz bands of the
IEEE standard, which sets the required bandwidth and frequency resolu-
tion. This had major impact on the PLL topology. The goal was one PLL
circuit for the 868/915 MHz bands using a fixed crystal frequency. To meet
these requirements, a fractional-N PLL architecture was chosen. An addi-
tional benefit is that the software-controlled fractional-N PLL provides the
adaptability to meet future worldwide spectrum expansion in the range of
860 to 930 MHz.
Zigbee Network Considerations
The features of the PHY include receiver energy detection, link quality
indication, and clear channel assessment. Both contention-based and con-
tention-free channel access methods are supported with a maximum packet
size of 128 bytes, which includes a variable payload up to 104 bytes. Also
employed are 64-bit IEEE and 16-bit short addressing, supporting over
65,000 nodes per network. The MAC provides network association and
disassociation, has an optional superframe structure with beacons for time
synchronization, and a guaranteed time slot (GTS) mechanism for high pri-
ority communications. The channel access method is carrier sense multiple
access with collision avoidance (CSMA-CA).
ZigBee defines the network, security, and application framework profile
layers for an IEEE 802.15.4-based system. ZigBee’s network layer sup-
ports three networking topologies; star, mesh, and cluster tree, as shown
in Figure 3.11. Star networks are common and provide for very long bat-
tery life operation. Mesh, or peer-to-peer, networks enable high levels of
reliability and scalability by providing more than one path through the
network. Cluster-tree networks utilize a hybrid star/mesh topology that
combines the benefits of both for high levels of reliability and support for
battery-powered nodes.
Mesh
Star
PAN coordinator
Cluster Tree
Full Function Device
Reduced Function Device
FIGURE 3.11 ZigBee network topologies.
To provide for low-cost implementation options, the ZigBee Physical Device

type distinguishes the type of hardware based on the IEEE 802.15.4 defini-
tion of reduced function device (RFD) and full function device (FFD). An
IEEE 802.15.4 network requires at least one FFD to act as a network coor-
dinator. The description of each Physical Device type is found in Table 3.2.
Table 3.2 ZigBee Physical Device Types
Reduced Function Device Full Function Device

Limited to star topology Can function in any topology
Cannot become network coordinator Capable of being network coordinator
Talks only to network coordinator (FFD) Capable of being a coordinator
Simple implementation—min RAM and Can talk to any other device (FFD/RFD)
ROM
Generally battery powered Generally line powered
An RFD is implemented with mimmum RAM and ROM resources and

designed to be a simple send and/or receive node in a larger network. With
a reduced stack size, less memory is required, and thus a less expensive IC.
ZigBee RFDs are generally battery powered. RFDs can search for avail-
able networks, transfer data from its application as necessary, determine
whether data is pending, request data from the network coordinator, and
sleep for extended periods of time to reduce battery consumption. RFDs
can only talk to an FFD, a device with sufficient system resources for net-
work routing. The FFD can serve as a network coordinator, a link coordina-
tor, or as just another communications device. Any FFD can talk to other
FFDs and RFDs. FFDs discover other FFDs and RFDs to establish com-
munications, and are typically line powered.
The ZigBee Logical Device type distinguishes the Physical Device types
(RFD or FFD) deployed in a specific ZigBee network. The Logical Device
types are ZigBee Coordinators, ZigBee Routers, and ZigBee End Devices.
The ZigBee Coordinator initializes a network, manages network nodes,
and stores network node information. The ZigBee Router participates in
the network by routing messages between paired nodes. The ZigBee End
Device acts as a leaf node in the network and can be an RFD or FFD.
ZigBee application device types distinguish the type of device from an end-
user perspective as specified by the Application Profiles.
ZigBee’s self-forming and self-healing mesh network architecture permits
data and control messages to be passed from one node to another node via
multiple paths. This feature extends the range of the network and improves
data reliability. This peer-to-peer capability may be used to build large, geo-
graphically dispersed networks where smaller networks are linked together
to form a ‘cluster tree’ network. ZigBee provides a security toolbox to ensure
reliable and secure networks. Access control lists, packet freshness timers, and
128-bit encryption protect data transmission and ZigBee wireless networks.
Zigbee Applications
ZigBee networks consist of multiple traffic types with their own unique
characteristics, including periodic data, intermittent data, and repetitive
low latency data. The characteristics of each are as follows:
• Periodic data—usually defined by the application such as a wireless
sensor or meter. Data typically is handled using a beaconing system
whereby the sensor wakes up at a set time and checks for the beacon,
exchanges data, and goes to sleep.
• Intermittent data—either an application or external stimulus such as
a wireless light switch. Data can be handled in a beaconless system or
disconnected. In a disconnected operation, the device will only attach to
the network when communications is required, saving significant energy.
• Repetitive low latency data—uses time slot allocations such as a
security system. These applications may use the guaranteed time slot
(GTS) capability. GTS is a method of QoS that allows each device a
specific duration of time as defined by the PAN coordinator in the
superframe to do whatever it requires without contention or latency.
For example, an automatic meter reading application represents a periodic

data traffic type with data from water or gas meters being transmitted to a
line-powered electric meter and passed over a powerline to a central loca-
tion. Using the beaconing feature of the IEEE standard, the respective
RFD meter wakes up and listens for the beacon from the PAN coordinator,
and if received, the RFD requests to join the network. The PAN coordi-
nator accepts the request. Once connected, the device passes the meter
information and goes to sleep. This capability provides for very low duty
cycles and enables multi-year battery life. Intermittent traffic types, such as
wireless light switches, connect to the network when needed to communi-
cate (i.e., turn on a light). For repetitive low latency applications, a guaran-
teed time slot option provides for Quality of Service with a contention-free,
dedicated time slot in each superframe that reduces contention and latency.
Applications requiring timeliness and critical data pas sage may include
medical alerts and security systems. In all applications, the smaller packet
sizes of ZigBee devices results in higher effective throughput values com-
pared to other standards.
ZigBee networks are primarily intended for low-duty cycle sensor net-
works (<1%). A new network node may be recognized and associated in
about 30 ms. Waking up a sleeping node takes about 15 ms, as does access-
ing a channel and transmitting data. ZigBee applications benefit from the
ability to quickly attach information, detach, and go to deep sleep, which
results in low power consumption and extended battery life.
This combined the characteristics of the IEEE 802.15.4 standard with
the maturing ZigBee specification in defining the wireless profiles for low-
data rate monitoring and control applications. The capabilities of both will
result in the availability of a technology tailored specifically for the low-
power, low-cost, and low-complexity applications in industries and the
home today and in the future. Zigbee is built upon the foundations pro-
vided by the IEEE 802.15.4 standard.
Full Function Device (FFD)
• Capable of being the PAN Coordinator
• Implements processing of “Association Request”
• Implements processing of “Orphan Notification”
• Implements processing of “Start Request”
• Implements processing of “Disassociation Notification”
Reduced Function Device (RFD)

• Can only associate and communicate with an FFD
• Reduced stack removes optional components
Zigbee Network Layer

The application layer consists of three parts: the Application Sublayer (APS),
the Application Framework (AF), and the endpoints. The Application
Sublayer interfaces the Zigbee application layer to the Zigbee network-
ing layer and it provides a common set of data transport services to all
the endpoints. There are also a couple of other services that the APS pro-
vides. Zigbee stack is shown in Figure 3.12 and Zigbee network is shown in
Figure 3.13.
Application Framework
Zigbee
Application Application Device
object 240 object 1 Object (ZDO)
Security Application Support (APS) Layer

Service
Provider Network (NWK) Layer
Medium Access Layer (MAC)
Physical (PHY) Layer
FIGURE 3.12 Zigbee stack.
802.15.4 FFD
802.15.4 RFD
Network Association
FIGURE 3.13 Zigbee network.
The Application Framework is a glorified multiplexer and container for all

of the endpoints. All of the endpoints register themselves with the AF, and
when a data frame comes into the application layer, the AF will checkits
destination endpoint and forward it there.
The endpoints are what most people associate with Zigbee. Each end-
point houses what’s called an application object, which is basically a device
profile with whatever extra functionality you decide to add. When the device
is started, all the endpoints will register themselves with the application
framework and provide descriptions of their device profile and their capa-
bilities. Endpoint 0 is a special endpoint and always contains the Zigbee
Device Object (ZDO). This object implements the Zigbee Device Profile,
which has multiple functions, one of them being the network manager.
The user application can manage the network by making requests and
handling callbacks to this object, which is why it’s important to know about
it. In general, the Zigbee endpoints are going to be the main interface
between the user application and the stack. SAPs (service access points)
between the layers are for formality. In a real implementation, call the func-
tions directly or via function pointers.
Network Formation
When the user app decides to form a network instead of joining an existing
one, it will instruct the ZDO to call the network formation function. Only a
router that is coordinator-capable can form a network, and this is indicated
in the application layer’s information base. It’s just a term for the app layer’s
configuration table.
When the network formation function is called, a list of allowed chan-
nels needs to be supplied, which may be limited to a subset of the total
available channels (16 channels @ 2.4GHz). The network formation func-
tion will call the MAC’s energy scan and active scan services and perform
scans on the supplied channel list. When the scans are finished, the MAC’s
scan confirm function will return the energy readings and network scan
descriptors to the function via the MAC’s scan confirmation. From there,
the network formation function will need to decide on the channel to join.
The usual criteria is to choose a channel with the lowest energy reading
(lowest amount of traffic) and the fewest networks.
Once the channel is decided on, the newly crowned coordinator will
decide on a PAN ID and set the channel in the radio. The final step is for
the NWK layer to call the MAC start service which configures the MAC
layer. After that, confirmations go back all the way up to the user app. It is
User App ZDO NWK MAC
User app requests NWK issues
to form ZDO issues MAC energy
a new network network formation scan request
request Energy readings
MAC energy scan taken by the radio
confirm
Beacon request
NWK issues
MAC network Beacon Frame 1
scan request
MAC network scan Beacon Frame n
NWK chooses PAN confirm
ID and channel NWK issues MAC
start request
NWK formation MAC start confirm

User app callback confirm
for
confirmation
FIGURE 3.14 Network formation sequence diagram.
Network Discovery
As the name implies, the Zigbee network discovery service is used to dis-
cover the existing networks on the current channel. It’s mostly just used
when the device is started to find out if there are any suitable networks to
join, although it can also be called at any time via the user app.
When a network discovery is requested by the ZDO (or user app), the
discovery function will call the MAC’s active scan service which, in turn, will
broadcast a beacon request. When other devices see the beacon request,
they will respond with an 802.15.4 beacon frame. The beacon frame contains
MAC information about the responding device as well as a beacon payload
for generic data. Within that payload, the responding device will include
Zigbee network information such as the protocol ID and version, amount of
routers and end devices allowed to join, the device profile that is being used,
and other somewhat useful information. It is shown in figure 3.15.
Bits 0-7 8-11 12-15 16-17 18 19-22 23 24-87 88-111 112-119
Protocol Stack Network Router Device End Device Extended

Protocol RSVD Capacity Transmit Network
ID Profile Version Depth Capacity PAN ID Offset Update ID
Frame Frame Frame

Control Sequence Src Src Superframe Pending NWK Data Check
Number PAN Addr Spec GTS Fields Addr Fields sum
Field (FCF) (DSN) ID (FCS)
Bytes
2 1 2 VAR 2 VAR VAR VAR 2
Beacon Header Beacon Pay Loader

FIGURE 3.15 Beacon network (NWK) payload format.
When the beacons from the scan request are received, the device will add
both the MAC and NWK info to its scan descriptor list and its neighbor
table. After all of the beacons have been collected, a network discovery con-
firmation will be sent to the ZDO along with the list containing all the scan
descriptors. The ZDO or the user app would then need to decide which
network to join based on certain join critera. It’s here that the user can
specify if they only want their device to join certain networks or even if
there is a specific device they’d like to join to. It is shown in Figure 3.16.
User app requests
network
ZDO issues
discovery discovery NWK issues
request MAC network
scan request
Beacon request
Beacon Frame 1
MAC Network Beacon Frame n
NWK discovery scan confirm

confirm with scan
User app callback descriptor list
for confirmation
FIGURE 3.16 Network discovery sequence diagram.
Network Join
Joining a device or allowing a device to join is probably one of the most
complicated processes in Zigbee. There are actually two sides to the net-
workjoin function: the child side which sends the request and the parent
side which processes the request and sends the response.
Network join Child

The first part of the join process for the child is to do a network dis-
covery. This is usually done when the device is first started and is not
associated with any network as mentioned previously. Once the net-
work discovery is finished and the potential parent has been decided on
according to the join criteria, then it’s time for the network join process
to start.
When the potential parent has been chosen, a network join request is
called by the ZDO. The network join request will call the MAC’s association
service and issue an association request to the potential parent. From there,
the procedure follows the MAC’s association sequence until the association
response is received from the potential parent.
When this response is received, it will get passed up to the network
layer via the MAC’s association response. If the join was successful, the
device will update its NWK and MAC information tables to include the
new network address, PAN ID, and also update the neighbor table to spec-
ify its parent. Once the administrative work is taken care of, the network
join confirmation is sent up to the ZDO where it can inform the application
about the join status. If the join status was unsuccessful, then the ZDO/user
app will choose another potential parent from the neighbor table and retry
the join procedure until it eventually joins a network or runs out of potential
parents.
One of the last things that occurs after a successful join is that the device
will broadcast a device announcement informing everyone on the network
that it has joined the network as well as it’s 16-bit network address and
64-bit IEEE address. This is important because if the device was previously
joined to the network with a different network address, the other devices
will be able to find out from its IEEE address and can clear all references to
the old network address. Also, the address info will be added to everyone’s
address map, which tracks all the devices on the network. It is explained in
Figure 3.17.
User app requests

network discovery
User app callback for

confirmation
User app provides join

criteria or dev address
to join ZDO issues network NWK issues
join request MAC association
request
MAC association
NWK join confirm confirm
User app callback for

confirmation
FIGURE 3.17 Network join sequence diagram—child side.
Network Join Parent

The parent side of the join process is slightly easier. When a MAC
association request arrives at the potential parent, it sends an indication
to the network layer that a device is trying to join. The potential parent
will then search its neighbor table to see if the 64-bit IEEE address
already exists. If it does, then that means that the device was already
previously joined and the parent will just issue the same network
address to it. If not, and the parent is allowing devices to join it, then
it will simply add the device to its neighbor table specifying that it’s a
child device and generate a new network address for it. This all gets
packaged up and sent out as a MAC association response. Again, the
rest goes according to the MAC’s association service. It is shown in
Figure 3.18.
Association Request
MAC association
indication
Check neighbor
table and assign
network address
MAC association
response
Association Response
NWK join
indication
User app callback

for join indication
FIGURE 3.18 Network join sequence diagram—parent side.
Summary
• Wireless sensor networks are aggregates of numerous small sensor
nodes.
• The IEEE 802.15.4 / Zigbee standard is one of the most promising
candidates for designing WSNs, which need to be self-organized
and self-healing; that is, nodes automatically establish and maintain
connectivity among themselves.
• WSNs must be self organizing, perform cooperative processing, and
be energy optimized and modular.
• Middleware refers to the software layer between the operating
system and sensor application on the one hand and the distributed
application which interacts over the network on the other hand.
• A cluster is a set of adjacent sensors which are grouped together and
interface with the rest of the network through a gateway or cluster head.
• TinyOS a tiny microthreading operating system.

• Hardware abstractions in TinyOS generally follow a three-level
abstraction hierarchy, called the HAA (Hardware Abstraction
Architecture).
• Zigbee’s network layer supports three networking topologies: star,
mesh, and cluster tree.
• Full Function Devices (FFD) are capable of being the PAN
Coordinator.
• Reduced Function Devices (RFD) can only associate and
communicate with an FFD.
Questions
1. What are the requirements of an operating system?
2. What are the four characteristics of WSNs? Explain each.
3. With the help of a diagram, explain software architecture components.
4. Explain about cluster-based, service-oriented architecture.
5. What are the sensor node software development processes?
6. List the characteristics of TinyOS.
7. Explain the TinyOS abstractions.
8. Give frequency bands and data rate of IEEE 802.15.4.
9. What are design factors to consider in RF design?
10. Write about Zigbee network considerations.
11. Compare RFD and FED.
12. Explain Zigbee stacks.
13. In detail write about the Zigbee network layer.
14. Give the network beacon payload format.
Further Reading
1. Wireless Sensor Networks: Technology, Protocols, and Applications by
Kazem Sohraby, Daniel Minoli, and Taieb Znati
2. Wireless Sensor Networks: Architecture and Applications by Dr. Anis
Koubaa
3. Wireless Sensor Network Designs by Anna Hac
References
1. http://anp.tu-sofia.bg/djiev/Networks_Wireless.htm
2. http://www.freaklabs.org/index.php/blog/zigbee/
CHAPTER
4
WIRELESS BODY SENSOR
NETWORKS
This chapter discusses the wireless body sensor network for medical
field application.
4.1 Introduction to Wireless Body Sensor Networks

Improving the quality of healthcare and the prospects of “aging in place”
using wireless sensor technology requires solving difficult problems in
scale, energy management, data access, security, and privacy. An aging baby
boom generation is stressing the healthcare system, causing hospitals and
other medical caregivers to look for ways to reduce costs while maintain-
ing quality of care. It is economically and socially beneficial to reduce the
burden of disease treatment by enhancing prevention and early detection.
This requires a long-term shift from a centralized, expert-driven, crisis-care
model to one that permeates personal living spaces and involves informal
caregivers, such as family, friends, and community. Systems for enhancing
medical diagnosis and information technology often focus on the clinical
environment, and depend on the extensive infrastructure present in tra-
ditional healthcare settings. The expense of high fidelity sensors limits the
number that are available for outpatient deployment, and some require
specialized training to operate.
For healthcare applications, wireless sensor networks can be deployed
inexpensively in existing structures without IT infrastructure. Data are col-
lected automatically, enabling daily care and longitudinal medical monitor-
ing and diagnosis. The wireless devices can integrate with a wide variety of
environmental and medical sensors.
While addressing some of the needs of distributed healthcare, WSNs

also present their own challenges to being practical, robust platforms for
pervasive deployment. Privacy and security of collected medical data may
be jeopardized by careless use of a wireless medium. Without smart power
management, battery-powered sensors have short lifetimes of a few days or
require continual maintenance.
A smart medical home is a system of room labs outfitted with infrared
sensors, computers, biosensors, and video cameras. The goal of the system
is to develop an integrated personal health system that collects data 24
hours a day and presents it to health professionals. The sensors such as a
portable 2-lead ECG, pulse oximeter, wearable Pluto mote with built-in
accelerometer, and a module with an accelerometer, a gyroscope, and an
electromyogram sensor for stroke patient monitoring are included in the
medical node.
One of the most interesting areas for the implementation of the WSN is in
the medical field, because there are different challenges which are associated
with monitoring the human body. The human body responds to its environ-
ment as well as external conditions in its life every day. Thus, in order to
monitor all these features, one must apply the monitoring and sensor networks
in order to really diagnose what gets the sensors on the body surface, depend-
ing on the frequency of monitoring. The name associated with this imple-
mentation is Body Sensor Networks (BSN). This BSN technology may offer
the possibility of developing a detailed diagnosis of the patient, because the
network would be able to monitor all vital signs and synthesize all relevant
information for more effective patient care.
4.2 Architecture of Body Sensor Networks

A key requirement for healthcare systems is the ability to operate continu-
ously over long time periods and still integrate new technologies as they
become available. Mobile Body Networks are wireless sensor devices worn
by a resident which provide activity classification or physiological sensing,
such as an ECG, pulse oximeter, or accelerometers. The network is tai-
lored to the patient’s own medical needs, and can provide notifications (for
example, alerts to take medicine) using network wearable interface with a
color LCD. Figure 4.1 shows wearable body networks, emplaced wireless
sensors, user interfaces, and back end processing elements for body sensor
network architecture.
Wireless Body Sensor Networks • 113
In Network Body Area Networks:

Interface Pulse, SPO2, BP, ECG
Acceleration, Position
Emplaced Sensor Network: Temperature,

Dust, Light, Motion, Tripwire, etc.
PDA
Gateway
PC
IP Network
User Interfaces Data Base Analysis:
Back End
FIGURE 4.1 Body sensor network architecture.
Body Network and Subsystems

This network comprises tiny portable devices equipped with a variety of
sensors (such as heart rate, heart rhythm, temperature, oximeter, acceler-
ometer), and performs biophysical monitoring, patient identification, loca-
tion detection, and other desired tasks. These devices are small enough to be
worn comfortably for a long time. Their energy consumption should also be
optimized so that the battery is not required to be changed regularly. They
may use “kinetic” recharging. Actuators notify the wearer of important mes-
sages from an external entity. For example, an actuator can remind an early
Alzheimer’s patient to check the oven because sensors detect an abnormally
high temperature. Or, a tone may indicate that it is time to take medication.
The sensors and actuators in the body network are able to communicate
among themselves. A node in the body network is designated as the gateway to
the emplaced sensor network. Due to size and energy constraints, nodes in
this network have little processing and storage capabilities.
Emplaced Sensor Network

This network includes sensor devices deployed in the environment (rooms,
hallways, furniture) to support sensing and monitoring, including temper-
ature, humidity, motion, acoustics, camera, and so forth. It also provides a
spatial context for data association and analysis. All devices are connected
to a more resourceful backbone. Sensors communicate wirelessly using
multi-hop routing and may use either wired or battery power. Nodes in this
network may vary in their capabilities, but generally do not perform exten-
sive calculation or store much data. The sensor network interfaces to multiple
body networks, seamlessly managing handoff of reported data and maintain-
ing patient presence information.
Backbone
A backbone network connects traditional systems, such as PDAs, PCs, and
databases, to the emplaced sensor network. It also connects discontinuous
sensor nodes by a high-speed relay for efficient routing. The backbone may
communicate wirelessly or may overlay onto an existing wired infrastructure.
Nodes possess significant storage and computation capability, for query pro-
cessing and location services.
Back End Databases

One or more nodes connected to the backbone are dedicated databases for
long-term archiving and data mining. If unavailable, nodes on the backbone
may serve as network databases.
Human Interfaces
Patients and caregivers interface with the network using PDAs, PCs, or
wearable devices. These are used for data management, querying, object
location, memory aids, and configuration, depending on who is accessing
the system and for what purpose. Limited interactions are supported with
the on-body sensors and control aids. These may provide memory aids,
alerts, and an emergency commumcation channel. PDAs and PCs provide
richer interfaces to real time and historical data. Caregivers use these to
specify medical sensing tasks and to view important data.
Body networks contain a designated gateway device that mediates inter-
action with the surrounding WSN. This modularizes the system’s interaction
with the body network to ease its integration. Data are streamed directly or
multi-hop through the emplaced network to the gateways for storage, analy-
sis, or distribution to user interfaces. Emplaced Sensors are deployed in
living spaces to sense environmental quality, such as temperature, dust, and
light, or resident activities. Motion and tripwire sensors, in particular, pro-
vide a spatial context for activities and enable location tracking.
Due to their low cost, small form factor, and limited power budget,
the devices answer queries for local data and perform limited processing
and caching. Though some deployment environments may enable the use of
mains power, we do not require it so as to support ad hoc retrofitting of exist-
ing structures. Figure 4.2(a) shows the lightweight stack resident on sensor
devices.
Body sensor networks need to support dynamically adding new devices
to the network, which register their capabilities and are initialized. This
flexibility allows the system to change over time as sensors are developed
or new pathologies require monitoring. Gateway software stacks serve as a
commumcation backbone and application level gateway between the wireless
sensor and IP networks. Owing to their greater resources, these devices per-
form major aspects of system operation related to dynamic privacy, power
management, query management, and security. The gateway software stack
is shown in Figure 4.2(b).
Back end programs perform online analysis of sensor data, feeding back
behavior profiles to aid context-aware power management and privacy. A data-
base provides long-term storage of system configuration, user information, pri-
vacy policies, and audit records.
Query Power Query Privacy Power Database Longitudinal

Processor Manager Manager Manager Manager Interface Studies
Sampler Security Activity

Security Audit Log Authentication
Rhythm
Sensor Routing Analysis
Data base
Driver Phoenix Source Routing Client Manager
Sensor Network Sensor Network IP Network

HW Activity
Classification
a b c
FIGURE 4.2 a) Sensor device software stack b) Gateway software stack
c) Back end analysis and storage.
Figure 4.2 shows the body sensor network software architecture for sensor
devices, gateways, and back end servers.
Activity rhythm analysis processes sensor data stored in the database and
learns behavior patterns of residents. These are used to detect deviations
from personal norms that may signal a short- or long-term decline in resi-
dent health. The back end is extensible to new analyses using a modular
framework, wherein programs consume input sensor streams, filter and

process them, and produce output streams in the database for other modules
to use. These are composed hierarchically from low-level sensor streams to
high-level inference of symptoms and diseases. User interfaces allow doc-
tors, nurses, residents, family, and others to query sensor data, subject to
enforced privacy policies. A patient-tracking GUI for a nurse’s station, and a
query issuer for a PDA that graphs sensor data in real time. These programs
are not trusted components; they must connect through the gateway and do
not have direct access to the database. This makes it easier to develop and
deploy new interfaces customized to the application’s needs.
A query system satisfies the requirements of the application domain,
and is reconfigurable in network sensing and processing, dynamic query origi-
nation by embedded devices, and high level abstractions for expressing que-
ries. The back end system, user interfaces, and embedded devices all issue
queries using a common network protocol, in which queries are uniquely iden-
tified by <source ID, query ID> tuples. Originators may request a snapshot
of the current value or a periodic stream of a sensing modality. To reduce
repetitive query parsing overhead on resource constrained motes, both types
of queries may be cached and efficiently restarted (or reissued) later.
Since radio communication in the WSN is expensive, process data at its
source, if possible, to reduce the amount that is reported. However, sensor
devices have limited memories and processors, and so only relatively light-
weight processing is practical. The query manager is a major actor in the
query subsystem, and resides on the gateway. Devices are commonly added
to and removed from the system, particularly in the health care domain,
where monitoring needs to evolve over time. To enable the query manager to
maintain the device state, nodes register with the nearest gateway upon power
up, providing their device type, sensors, and hardware ID. They are assigned
dynamic network IDs and are localized via application-specific means. The
query manager issues background queries to devices as they are added to the
network to satisfy the system’s core management and tracking functional-
ities. Examples of background queries in the body sensor network are:
• All devices sample and report their battery supply voltage every four
hours, but only if it is below 2.8V (indicating imminent failure);
• Motion, tripwire, and contact switch sensors report activations on
demand, but no more often than every 100ms to debounce or dampen
spurious bursts;
• Pulse oximetry devices, which are intermittently switched on,

collect heart rate and SpO2 samples every 250ms, but report them
every 750ms, each an average of three samples until the device is
switched off; and,
• ECG sensors immediately begin reporting a stream of raw samples every
20ms, using full buffering to reduce network load and energy usage.
The query manager is the main point of access for user interfaces, translating
between higher level query abstractions. Connected users receive a list of
active devices that is updated in real time as registrations are received. A
request for sensor information about person P must be mapped to a device
(or group of devices) D for execution. Some have static associations, such as
a wearable device owned or assigned to a user. Likewise for locations L in
which fixed sensor nodes are placed. But since networks for assisted liv-
ing are more human oriented and heterogeneous than most other types
of WSNs, many sensor types require dynamic binding based on a person’s
context (location, activity, etc).
Motes that are part of body networks necessarily use batteries (or scav-
enge energy from motion). Consequently, energy efficiency is an important
design issue and an application demands some particular requirements on
power management. First, sensors are used to detect and collect informa-
tion on residents, so they should adapt their operational states according
to changes in the resident’s behavior. Second, power management should
provide openness to system administrators, who should be able to set poli-
cies unique for particular applications. Third, individual sensing modalities,
as well as radio components, should be controllable. For example, the system
may want to set a high rate for temperature sensing, a low rate for light sens-
ing, turn off other sensor types, and set a duty cycle mode for the radio. Last, in
a heterogeneous network with diverse sensor nodes, such as ECG, motion, and
weight sensors, power management should adaptively control each according
to its own characteristics and context, including location.
For battery powered devices, two types of power management opera-
tions are designed, that is, those based on administrator directives and those
which rely on context awareness. First, administrators can directly control
each sensor available on a mote. Sensors can be turned on/off or their rates
set for each sensor type, and the radio is similarly controlled. Also, the effec-
tive period of each command can be set. A typical command may be, “Mote
1 turns off the light sensor, but senses the temperature every 2 seconds for
the following 2 hours.” Initially, administrators define some context policies

for power management, such as “when the resident is sleeping or outside
the apartment, turn off all sensors in the living room and reduce the tem-
perature sensing rate to hourly in all rooms.” This context-aware operation
provides more efficient power management that adapts to the resident’s
behavior. Another advantage of context-aware operation is that the power
subsystem is open for administrators to define their own context policies,
according to application demands.
Overall Wireless Sensor Systems for Patient Monitoring
Intelligent wireless patient monitoring system frameworks include real-
time sensing of the patient’s vital parameters using the motes, and wireless
transmission of such critical information over radio frequencies to the base
station. Subsequent data processing on a PC will allow detection of certain
medical emergencies, and automatic alerting of medical staff. The overall
framework is shown in Figure 4.3.
Wireless
Transmission of Signal Processing
Sensor Data Using a PC
Wireless
Patient 1 Reception
by a Base-Station
Medical Expert
Accessing
Real-Time Data
Wireless Mode
Patient 2
Patient 3
FIGURE 4.3 Overall framework for patient monitoring.
4.3 Bio Signal Monitoring Using Wireless Sensor Networks

A medical node usually consists of four subsystems, as shown in Figure 4.4.
Sensing Computing
Tx
Antenna
subsystem subsystem
Rx
Energy Storage subsystem Communications

subsystem
FIGURE 4.4 Wireless body sensor node.
Computing Subsystem
This is a microcontroller unit, which is responsible for the control of sensors
and the implementation of commumcation protocols. The microcontroller
is usually operated under different operating modes for power manage-
ment purposes.
Communications Subsystem
Issues relating to standard protocols, which depend on application vari-
ables, are obtained as the operating frequency and types of standards to be
used (Zigbee, Bluetooth, among others). This subsystem consists of a short
range radio which is used to communicate with other neighboring nodes
and outside the network. The radio can operate in the modes of transmitter,
receiver, standby, and sleep mode.
Sensing Subsystem
This is a group of sensors or actuators and links nodes outside the network.
The power consumption can be determined using low energy components.
Energy Storage Subsystem

One of the most important features in a wireless sensor network is related
to energy efficiency. Hardware developers in a WSN must provide various
techniques to reduce energy consumption. Due to this factor, power con-
sumption of the network must be controlled by two modules:
1. power module (which computes the energy consumption of different
components)
2. battery module (which uses this information to compute the discharge
of the battery)
When a network contains a large number of nodes, the battery replacement

becomes very complex; in this case the energy used for a wireless communi-
cations network is reduced by low energy multiple hops (multi-hop routing)
rather than a transmission high tech simple. This subsystem consists of a
battery that holds the battery of a node. This should be seen as the amount
of energy absorbed from a battery, which is reviewed by the high current
drawn from the battery for a long time.
WSN Classification and Operation Mode
A wireless sensor network can be classified depending on the application
and its programming, as well as its functionality in the field sensing, and so
forth. WSNs are classified as follows:
Homogeneous refers to when all nodes have the same hardware; other-
wise, it is called heterogeneous.
Autonomous refers to when all nodes are able to perform self-configura-
tion tasks without the intervention of a human.
Hierarchical refers to when nodes are grouped for the purpose of com-
municating or are otherwise shut down; in this classification it is common to
have a base station that works as a bridge to external entities.
Static refers to when nodes are static; otherwise, they are dynamic.
Flexibility. The wireless environment can be totally changed due to interfer-
ence from other microwaves or forms of materials in the environment, among
other conditions, which is why most of the nodes can fail at any time; there-
fore, the network should seek new paths in real time, must reconfigure the
network, and in turn re-calibrate the initial parameters.
Efficiency. This item is very important because the network to be imple-
mented must be efficient to work in real time, and must be reliable and
robust to interference from the same nodes or signals from other devices. The
network should be tightly integrated with the environment where it will work.
Scalability. When a wireless sensor network is dynamic, due to its topology
or application adding nodes is an important factor for the smooth operation
of data storage.
WSN Functional Levels
WSN networks are classified into three functional levels: the level of
control, the level of the communications network, and the field level, as
Control level
Communication network level
Field level
FIGURE 4.5 Architecture of a WSN for medical uses.
The field level consists of a set of sensors and actuators that interact directly
with the environment. The sensors are responsible for obtaining types of
data, for example, thermal, optical, acoustic, seismic, and so on. The actua-
tors on the other hand receive orders which are the result of processing the
information gathered by the sensors so it can be run later. The communica-
tion network establish a communication link between the field level and the
level of control. Nodes that are part of a WSN communications subsystem are
grouped into three categories: Endpoints, Routers, and Gateways. Finally,
the level of control consists of one or more control and/or monitoring cen-
ters, which uses information collected by the sensors to set tasks that require
the performance of the actuators. This control is done through special soft-
ware to manage network topologies and behavior of the network in diverse
environments. One way to consider wireless sensor networks is to organize
hierarchically the nodes of the upper level, which are the most complex,
and know its location through a transmission technique. The challenges in
hierarchically classifying a sensor network are finding relevant quantities to
monitor and collect data, access and evaluate information, and so on.
The information needed for intelligent environments or those whose
variables are complex to obtain is provided by a distributed network of wire-
less sensors which are responsible for detecting and for the early stages of
the processing hierarchy.
Communications Protocols
In a wireless sensor network, the communication method varies depending on
the application, whether medical, industrial, or scientific. One of the most
widely used commumcation protocols is the Zigbee protocol, which is a
technology composed of a set of specifications designed for wireless sensor
networks and controllers. This system is characterized by the type of com-
munication condition; it does not require a high volume of information (just
over a few kilobits per second) and also has a limited walking distance.
Zigbee was designed to provide simple and easy low-cost wireless com-
munications and also provide a connectivity solution for low-data transmis-
sion applications with low power consumption, such as home monitoring,
automation, environmental monitoring, control of industries, and emerging
applications in the area of wireless sensors. The IEEE802.15.4 standard,
which is called Zigbee, can work at three different frequency bands. This pro-
tocol is divided into layers according to the OSI model, where each layer has a
specific function depending on the application of the network. The physical
layer and the medium access control (MAC) are standardized by the IEEE
802.15 (WPAN), which is a working group under the name of 802.15.4; the
higher layers are specified by the Zigbee Alliance.
Some characteristics of the layers are given as follows:
Physical Layer ZigBee / IEEE 802.15.4

The IEEE 802.15.4 physical layer supports unlicensed industrial, scientific,
and medical radio frequency bands including 868 MHz, 915 MHz, and
2.4 GHz.
MAC Layer ZigBee / IEEE 802.15.4

At the MAC layer, there are two options to access the medium: beacon-
based (based on orientation) and non beacon (based on non-guidance).
In the non-oriented option, there is no time for synchronization between
Zigbee devices. The devices can access the channel using (CSMA/CA).
Protocol to the network layer /IEEE 802.15.4

Zigbee has multi-hop routing and capabilities designed as an integral part of
the system. This function is implemented within the network layer.
The performance of a wireless sensor network is measured depend-
ing on the ability to manage energy consumption of all nodes and also the
effectiveness in real time transmission of data from the time of sensing to

the display of such signs. Depending on the type of environment and
resources in a network of wireless sensors, one can define multiple archi-
tectures; among the best known are the star, mesh, and cluster-tree networks.
The nodes have no knowledge of the topology of the network, which must
be “discovered.”
A star topology network is characterized by a base station, which can
send and receive a message to a number of router nodes. The advantage of
this type of network for a WSN is the ease and ability to maintain energy
consumption of a router node to a very low level. The disadvantage of this
type of topology is the coordinator node (or base station), as it must be within
transmission range of all nodes.
Mesh network topology is characterized by allowing any node in the net-
work to transmit to any other node on the network that is within transmission
range. This type of topology has an advantage, which is the redundancy and
scalability compared to a situation of failure. If the router node gets out
of service, other nodes can communicate with each other without depend-
ing on the unusable node. The disadvantage of this type of network is that
power consumption for nodes that implement multi-hop communication,
which generally results in the life of the battery consumption, is too short.
Finally, a cluster-tree network (union of a star and mesh topology,
Figure 4.6), is one network that provides versatility to a communications net-
work, while it maintains the ability to have low-power consumption of wire-
less sensor nodes. This feature allows the power consumption of the entire
network to remain.
Mesh
Star
ZigBee coordinators
ZigBee routers
ZigBee devices
Cluster Tree
FIGURE 4.6 Network topology.
The position of the sensor nodes in a given area is not predetermined

in some situations; this means that the protocols and algorithms used
must be capable of self organization (in the case of a changing field).
Some designs have protocols for specific design features for main
energy saving and management of the interference signal caused by
microwaves.
4.4 Differences between Wide Scale WSNs and BSNs

Practically the differences between the BSN and the WSN are very few,
but it is very important to note that it is these small differences that allow
BSNs to face the challenges posed in the medical field. Table 4.1 presents a
summary of the differences between WSNs and BSNs.
Table 4.1 Different Challenges Faced by WSNs and BSNs
Challenges WSN BSN
Scale As large as the environment being As large as human body parts

monitored (meters / kilometers) (millimeters /centimeters)
Node Number Greater number of nodes Fewer, more accurate sensor
required for accurate, wide area nodes required (limited by
coverage space)
Node Function Multiple sensors, each perform Single sensors, each perform
dedicated tasks multiple tasks
Node Accuracy Large node number compensates Limited node number with each
for accuracy and allows result required to be robust and accurate
validation
Node Size Small size preferable, but not a Pervasive monitoring and need for
major limitation in many cases miniaturization
Dynamics Exposed to extremes in weather, Exposed to more predictable
noise, and asynchrony environment, but motion artifacts
are a challenge
Event Detection Early adverse event detection Early adverse event detec-
desirable; failure often reversible tion vital; human tissue failure
irreversible
Variability Much more likely to have a fixed Biological variation and com-
or static structure plexity means a more variable
structure
Challenges WSN BSN
Data Protection Lower level wireless data High-level wireless data trans-
transfer security required fer security required to protect
patient information
Power Supply Accessible and likely to be changed Inaccessible and difficult to
more easily and frequently replace in implantable setting
Power Demand Likely to be greater as power is Likely to be lower as energy is
more easily supplied more difficult to supply
Energy Scavenging Solar and wind power are most Motion (vibration) and thermal
likely candidates (body heat) most likely candidates
Access Sensors more easily replaceable or Implantable sensor replacement
even disposable difficult and requires
biodegradability
Biocompatibility Not a consideration in most A must for implantable and some
applications external sensors. Likely to increase
cost
Context Awareness Not so important with static sen- Very important because body
sors where environments are well physiology is very sensitive to
defined context change
Wireless Bluetooth, Zigbee, GPRS, wireless Low-power wireless required, with
Technology LAN, and RF already offer solutions signal detection more challenging
Data Transfer Loss of data during wireless trans- Loss of data more significant,
fer is likely to be compensated by and may require additional mea-
number of sensors used sures to ensure QoS and Real-
time data interrogation capabilities
Topology of a BSN
The application design of a BSN is based regularly in the star topology; this
topology has the main advantage of optimizing the energy consumption of the
network due to internal nodes called “slaves.” Only the coordinator will trans-
mit information received by the sensors, but as a great disadvantage, it has
the high possibility of network failure due to the fall of the coordinator node.
4.5 Methodology for Development of Biomedical Signals

Acquisition and Monitoring Using WSNs
A three-phase methodology for the development of applications of bio-
medical signals acquisition is shown in Figure 4.7. The first phase is the
acquisition of biomedical signals, whose main objective is to establish a set
of features for the proper selection of sensors that will accurately capture
the required signal, and at the same time, allow the correct transduction of
signals sent. The second stage concerns the correct choice of communica-
tion protocol to use and additional features to the network settings such as
topology. Finally, one must determine the relevant elements to design the
platform for visualization and monitoring of the sensed signals.
Signal Processing & Acquisition &

Acquisition Transmission Visualization
FIGURE 4.7 Methodology for development of biomedical signals acquisition and monitor-
ing using WSNs.
Signal Acquisition
The monitoring of biomedical signals requires mechanisms to strengthen,
substantiate, and legitimize the information captured by sensors. It should
be noted that for the acquisition of biomedical signals, one must meet cer-
tain characteristics that do not interfere or alter the information gained. One
should take into account sensor components that are responsible for trap-
ping and generating changes in the captured signals.
The concept of biomedical signals focuses on the acquisition of data of
common phenomena of the human body, which can reach diagnoses and pre-
dict diseases in the short and medium term. A biomedical signal becomes more
complex and useful when it captures a common signal. This allows us to argue
the importance of establishing and using elements that provide as much infor-
mation for the analysis of the signal. To define and translate these signals, a
set of parameters requires special handling. Because of the complexity and
accuracy of bio medical data, signals should have low error rates. The medical
sensors should have the ability to capture slight variations in depth to obtain
the behavior of the human body.
To acquire biomedical surface signals, such as the humidity or tempera-
ture, it should be noted that the structure has characteristics that do not alter
sensor data collected by the sensor. It may be the case that if the limit or stan-
dard level moisture or temperature are not met, it may yield inaccurate data or
oxidation of the sensor to a more advanced level. However, the environments
are not extreme in relation to an industrial environment where sensors may
be exposed to hostile areas. Only the following types of sensors and their
respective form of measurement are known, as seen in Figure 4.8.
Types of
sensor
interfaces
No contact Implantable Skin surface Residence

(not (invasive) (contact) (minimally
invasive) invasive)
FIGURE 4.8 Types of sensor interfaces.
The sensors can be used in diagnosis of medical diseases or for therapeu-

tic purposes. The sensors respond positively to the demands of an analysis
of diagnosis of medical diseases. It must also have high accuracy. In the case
of a touch sensor or implantable, it alters the body (negatively affecting the
functioning of the body by the presence of an external agent as, in this case, a
sensor).
If the sensor must be contact or implantable, this is closely affected by
the presence of high humidity or temperature. The design and implementa-
tion of protective sensor packages are chosen to protect the sensor from the
presence of moisture or temperature at the points where the sensor can be
affected, leaving only the part where the sensor makes the sampling. This will
protect the information gathered as well as prevent possible damage to the
body when placing or deploying foreign agents in the body.
There are some kind of sensors that have direct contact with the body.
There may be complications with the replacement of these components.
Before deploying sensors, there should be a prior investigation and docu-
mentation on the reliability and accuracy of the sensor. It is very complex
to make changes or sensor calibrations in real time or rely on technology to
which it is connected to maintain proper operation. All this must be prop-
erly fulfilling predefined maximum quality standards, taking into account
that it is not stopping the functioning of the body.
Processing & Transmission

For optimum performance of a wireless sensor network, it must con-
sider certain variables or characteristics such as: (i) Designing the net-
work topology, (ii) Sensing the environment, (iii) Energy consumption
and distribution, (iv) Formation of the network, and (v) Selection of ele-
ments. It must be accurate for sensing stability. When analyzing signals, it
must turn to decipher an error-free data set. This should give us a straight
answer, which is a translation of a real situation. For this analysis, one must
count on strong signals. The noise signals may alter reports, as one may find
situations where these noises are not important. To overcome this noise
obstacle, one should take into account all types of filters that can regener-
ate the signal for the system to obtain an adequate response. It should also
follow the specifications with which the sensor reported the state of the
system.
The functionality of a wireless sensor network occurs in large part on
the correct and accurate operation of the nodes that comprise it. For the
acquisition of signals in a given environment using specific sensors, these
sensors are as was seen in the first objective, depending on the application
and the environment in which one wants sensing. Based on the basic prin-
ciples for designing a system for acquiring and processing biomedical signals,
the text provides six phases for the data acquisition phase and later empha-
sizes the hardware design. Figure 4.9 is proposed as follows:
Transducer Amplifier Analog Digital

for analog Sampling Quantified
/Sensor filter Processing
signals
FIGURE 4.9 General block diagram of a procedure analogue to digital.
The function of a node is to sense, process, and commumcate data from

the signal for a more detailed study as the network administrator requires.
Depending on the topology of the network, each node has a specific function;
for example, the case router node can only send or receive a message, but can-
not send messages or data to other router nodes. On the other hand there is
the coordinator node, which has a dependency on other nodes for the com-
plete management of a network; unlikefor example, router node, this node can
send data to different nodes regardless of their classification.
The components that make up a sensor node are mostly very small devices
made by MEMS (Micro Electromechanical Systems), in which each plays
a vital role in the performance of each node in the network. Some of these
components are:
1. Sensing unit and unit performance
2. Processing unit
3. Communications unit
4. Power unit
5. Other
These hardware components should be organized to conduct a proper and
effective work without generating any kind of conflict in support of the spe-
cific applications for which they were designed. Each sensor node needs an
operating system (OS). The operating system operates between the applica-
tion software and hardware and is regularly designed to be used in worksta-
tions and PCs with the following points.
1. The collisions should be avoided whenever possible, since the relay
produces unnecessary energy consumption and other potential delays.
It is necessary to find an optimal solution to avoid overloading the net-
work and avoid maximum power consumption.
2. The delay of the transmission of sent data packets is very important
because it should be broadcasting in continuous time and with the high-
estpossible quality.
3. The receptor of the network must always be in constant operation (On),
for it provides an ideal or hypothetical situation where network only
mode when one needs to send or receive packets and minimize the
monitoring efforts of spots.
4. There are points in the design of a wireless system such as: efficient
use of bandwidth, delay, channel quality, and power consumption.
5. The adaptability and mobility of the network.
Design Coordinators and Router Nodes

Some new technologies in the design and manufacturing of communica-
tions devices, such as smaller devices and better yields, have enabled the
development of more complete nodes to the field of sensing, transmission,
and reception of signals obtained. Currently, there are several devices that
meet the requirements demanded for the development of a wireless sen-

sor network. The use of communication modules have helped to design the
networks, both in reducing devices included in a node, and the integration
of several functions at a level of both hardware and software (i.e., Security
Protocols) in a single device.
Acquisition & Visualization

In order to develop a software application that allows the correct visualization
of the acquired signals, it must take into account multiple factors to identify
the basic features to implement it. One of the first tasks is the selection of
the platform for software development, and the parameters to consider are:
• A platform that has the ability to receive a high volume of data
• A platform that allows easy synchronization between hardware and
software
• A platform with virtual instrumentation tools
After the selection of the development platform begins the design phase
of the application. This stage should establish the visual and written
information to be submitted for a proper medical diagnosis. In order to
visualize the acquired biomedical signals, the following modules must be
designed:
Acquisition Module: This module is responsible for taking the BSN bio-
medical signals gateway.
Separation Module: This module is responsible for recovering the
received frame, and the different signals transmitted (if more than one).
Processing Module: In this module each signal must translate the infor-
mation received in units of voltage to the unit required by the signal such as
temperature and relative humidity, among others.
Display Module: Determines the way in which the signal must be
represented.
Graphical User Interface: This module uses integrated display modules
to facilitate the analysis of information by the end user.
After finally completing the respective designs, the following steps are imple-
menting for the software and then it is tested to check its proper functioning,
as seen in Figure 4.10.
Graphical
Acquisition Separation Processing Display User
Module Module Module Module Interface
Module
FIGURE 4.10 General block diagram of biomedical signals visualization software.
The impact generated by the use of wireless sensor networks in the quality
of patient care is very high. The use of these devices in home care systems
can reduce hospitalizations, health professionals’ timely interventions can
extend patients’ lives, and in some cases the use of biofeedback techniques
in psychological treatments may overcome difficult phobias. The develop-
ment of such systems implies challenges to be faced in the area of engineer-
ing, such as minimizing energy consumption, since nodes in the network
need to survive as long as possible. Another challenge is assuring the reli-
ability of the information transmitted, since any slight variation may gener-
ate erroneous diagnoses. Finally, one of the biggest concerns is related to
the potential impact of electromagnetic radiation to human bodies subject
to the use of such devices.
4.6 Wireless Sensor Networks for Health Monitoring

The medical sensor network system integrates heterogeneous devices,
some wearable on the patient and some placed inside the living space.
Together they inform the healthcare provider about the health status of the
resident. Data is collected, aggregated, pre-processed, stored, and acted
upon using a variety of sensors and devices in the architecture (pressure
sensor, RFID tags, floor sensor, environmental sensor, dust sensor, etc.).
Multiple body networks may be present in a single system. Traditional
healthcare provider networks may connect to the system by a gateway, or
directly to its database. Some elements of the network are mobile, while
others are stationary. Some can use line power, but others depend on bat-
teries. If any fixed computing or communications infrastructure is present
it can be used, but the system can be deployed into existing structures
without retrofitting.
A. Data acquisition
1. Motion sensor. A low-cost sensor module that is capable of detecting
motion and ambient light levels. The module also has a simple one-
button and LED user interface for testing and diagnostics. A set of
such modules is used to track human presence in every room of the

simulated smart health home.
2. Body network. A wearable WSN service embedded in a jacket, which
can record human activities and locations using a two-axis accelerom-
eter and GPS. The recorded activity data is subsequently uploaded
through an access point for archiving, from which past human activities
and locations can be reconstructed.
3. Indoor temperature and luminosity sensor. These sensors give the en-
vironmental conditions of the habitat.
4. Bed sensor. The bed sensor is based on an air bladder strip located on
the bed, which measures the breathing rate, heart rate, and agitation
of a patient.
5. Pulse-oximeter and EKG. They are wearable and collect patient vi-
tal signs. Heart rate (HR), heartbeat events, oxygen saturation (SpO2),
and electrocardiogram (EKG) are available.
B. Current backbone infrastructure

The current backbone is a gateway between the motes deployed in the home
environment and the nurse control station. Motes use a Zigbee compliant
(802.15.4) wireless protocol for communication.
C. Database management and data mining
A database (like MySQL/Oracle) serves as a backend data store for the
entire system. It is located in a PC connected to the backbone, and stores all
the information coming from the infrastructure for longitudinal studies and
offline analysis.
D. Graphical user interfaces
A GUI (Figure 4.11), which can run on a PDA, permits a caregiver to
request real-time environmental conditions of the living space and the vital
signs of the resident. It uses a query management system distributed among
the PDA, gateway, and the sensor devices. The interface graphically presents
requested data for clear consumption by the user. An LCD interface board
was also designed for wearable applications. It presents sensor readings,
reminders, and queries, and can accept rudimentary input from the wearer. A
final GUI, from a direct medical application based on motion sensors, exists
to study the behavioral profile of the user’s sleep/wake patterns and life hab-
its, and to detect some pathologies in the early stages.
FIGURE 4.11 A GUI displays accelerometer data, patient pulse rate, and environmental
temperature.
The system is single hop, as the radio range covers all of the facility. A
multi-hop protocol will be necessary for access of multiple floors, or if trans-
mission power is reduced. Data communication is bidirectional between the
motes and the gateway. Time-stamping is done by the PC when motion events
are received. Figure 4.12 shows the current acquisition chain.
Nurse
M Back control
I Gateway End
C station
A TCP-IP Data
Base
802.11.b
802.15.4
Motion
Sensor
Temperature
Luminosity EKG &
SaO2
FIGURE 4.12 Current configuration of the medical test bed.

4.7 Wearable Computing

“Wearable Computing” is a technology dealing with computer systems
integrated in clothing. One of the possible applications of the project is the
rapid availability of patient medical information at any time; this may mean
an interesting reduction in medical examination fees, the power to perform
medical reviews in the daily circumstances of patients, and in extreme cases
could save the life of a patient.
A wearable audio navigation system is a portable device whose char-
acteristics are in navigation software for people with vision loss or even
for places in which the vision of the place is limited, and this emphasizes
the need to avoid obstacles or to obtain characteristics of the environment
quickly. This device consists of a small computer which contains various
guidance devices such as GPS, inertial sensors, RFID antennas, and RF
sensors, among others. When all devices are synchronized and identify the
exact location, sound guidance is delivered through an audio device to the
person using the device, which also indicates in real time the location of
other characteristics of the sensing environment.
The advanced soldier sensor information system and technology is a
well-known program that integrates information on the battlefield (location,
time, group activities, among others) on the soldier to collect, disseminate,
and display key information, without risking life or physical integrity.
4.8 Simulators
Currently there are several simulators for sensor networks, which play key
roles in processing and in turn facilitate easy configuration of the network
depending on the application to use. Among the best are the following:
1. NS-2: It was one of the first simulations, which facilitates simulations car-
ried out by both wireless and wired. Itis written in C + + and oTCL (In-
formation Sciences Institute).
2. GloMoSim (Global Mobile Information Systems Simulator): is a scal-
able simulation: device for network systems both wired and wireless.
This simulator is written in C and Parsec. GloMoSom currently sup-
ports protocols for purely wireless network environments.
3. SensorSim: This simulation framework provides channel sensing and
sensor models as models of battery, battery light wide protocols for
wireless microsensors.
4.9 Ongoing Research Ideas in Medical

1. Multimodal data association and multiple residents. Data association
is a way to know “who is doing what?” in a system without biometric
identification and with multiple actors present, such as in an assisted
living community. It permits us to recognize the right person among
others when he is responsible for a triggered event. This is indispens-
able for avoiding medical errors in the future and properly attributing
diagnostics. Consequently, dedicated sensors and data association algo-
rithms must be developed to increase quality of data.
2. Data integrity. When the data association mechanisms are not suffi-
cient, or integrity is considered critically important, some functional-
ities of the system can be disabled. This preserves only the data which
can claim a high degree of confidence. In an environment where false
alarms cannot be tolerated, there is a tradeoff between accuracy and
availability.
3. Security and privacy. The system is monitoring and collecting patient
data that is subject to privacy policies. For example, the patient may de-
cide not to reveal the monitored data of certain sensors until it is vital
to determine a diagnosis and therefore authorized by the patient at the
time of a visit to a doctor. Security and privacy mechanisms must be
throughout the system.
Summary
• A smart medical home is a system of room labs outfitted with infrared
sensors, computers, biosensors, and video cameras.
• The sensors, such as a portable 2-lead ECG, pulse oximeter, wearable
Pluto mote with built-in accelerometer, module with accelerometer,
gyroscope, and electromyogram sensor for monitoring of stroke
patients are included in the medical node.
• Body network and subsystems, emplaced sensor network, back end,
backend databases, and human interfaces are the different parts of the
body sensor network architecture.
• The intelligent wireless patient-monitoring system framework includes
real-time sensing of the patient’s vital parameters using the motes,
and wireless transmission of such critical information over radio
frequencies to the base station.
• A medical node consists of a computing subsystem, communication

subsystem, sensing subsystem, and energy storage subsystem.
• BSN technology offers the possibility of developing a detailed
diagnosis of the patient, because the network would be able to monitor
all vital signs and synthesize all relevant information for more effective
patient care.
• Wearable computing is a technology dealing with computer systems
integrated in clothing.
Questions
1. What do you mean by body sensor networks?
2. Explain the architecture of body sensor networks.
3. What are the blocks in body sensor network software architecture?
4. Draw the overall framework for patient monitoring. Explain.
5. What are the blocks available in the wireless medical node?
6. Define a homogeneous node.
7. What is meant by an autonomous node?
8. What are the classifications of WSNs?
9. How many classifications are in the functional level of WSNs?
10. What are the characteristics of the layers used for medical?
11. What are the different topologies available for medical? Which is best
suited? Justify the answer.
12. Differentiate WSNs and BSNs.
13. What do you mean by wearable computing?
14. Explain the three-phase methodology for the development of appli-
cations of biomedical signals acquisition.
15. What are the different types of sensors interfaced for medical moni-
toring?
16. Explain the WSN system for health monitoring.
Further Reading
1. Body Sensor Networks by Guang-Zhong Yang
2. Wireless Body Area Networks: Technology, Implementation, and Appli-
cations by Mehmet R. Yuce and Jamil Khan
3. Ultra Wideband Wireless Body Area Networks by Kasun Maduranga
Silva Thotahewa, Jean-Michel Redouté, and Mehmet Rasit Yuce
References
1. http://cdn.intechweb.org/pdfs/12898.pdf
2. http://spriyansasi.blogspot.in/2013/08/wireless-sensor-networking.
html
CHAPTER
5
UBIQUITOUS SENSOR
NETWORKS
This chapter discusses the wireless sensor networks for environmental,
industrial monitoring, and Ubiquitous Sensor Networks (USN).
5.1 Ubiquitous Sensor Networks (USN)

When you enter a modern office building, it is quite common for the glass
doors to open automatically and for lights to come on as you enter a dark-
ened room. This “magic” is achieved by motion sensors. When entering a
building of the future, you might be welcomed by name with a personal
greeting and given security access suitable to your status (e.g., employee,
delegate, newcomer). To do this without human intervention would require
not only intelligent sensors but also perhaps ID tags, readers, and interac-
tion with one or more databases containing your profile.
The three elements of sensors, tags, and communication/processing
capacity together make up a future network vision identified by a number of
different names. Some use the terms “invisible,” “pervasive,” or “ubiquitous”
computing, while others prefer to refer to “ambient intelligence” or to describe
a future “Internet of Things.” The term “Ubiquitous Sensor Networks” (USN)
is used to describe a network of intelligent sensors that could, one day, become
ubiquitous. The technology has enormous potential, as it could facilitate new
applications and services in a wide range of fields, from ensuring security and
environmental monitoring to promoting personal productivity and enhancing
national competitiveness. But USNs will also require huge investments and a
large degree of customization. As such, it presents a standardization challenge
with an unusually high degree of complexity.
Anywhere, Anytime, by Anyone and Anything

The term “ubiquitous” is derived from the Latin word ubique meaning “every-
where.” But the literal interpretation of a USN as meaning sensors on every
single part of the globe, however remote, is not a realistic aim. Instead, a more
reasonable definition is based on socio economic, rather than geographical,
lines, and describes a technology which can be available “anywhere” (i.e.,
anywhere that it is useful and economically viable to expect to find a sen-
sor), rather than “everywhere.” The concept of availability is wider than just
a geographical measure, and the expression “anywhere, anytime, by anyone
and anything” (the “4A vision”) has come to be used to illustrate the trend
toward a ubiquitous network society. USNs have applications in both civilian
and military fields. For civilian applications, these include environment and
habitat monitoring, healthcare, home automation, and intelligent transport
systems. The main components of a USN, as described in Figure 5.1, are:
Sensor Network: Comprising sensors and an independent power source
(e.g., battery, solar power). The sensors can then be used for collecting and
transmitting information about their surrounding environment.
USN Access Network: Intermediary or “sink nodes” collecting informa-
tion from a group of sensors and facilitating communication with a control
center or with external entities.
Network Infrastructure: likely to be based on a next generation network
(NGN).
USN Middleware: Software for the collection and processing of large vol-
umes of data.
USN Applications Platform: A technology platform to enable the effective
use of a USN in a particular industrial sector or application. The nodes may
vary enormously in size and in cost and complexity. The medium that nodes
use to communicate with the sink would vary according to the characteristics
of the application. Depending on the sensor type, the links between sensors
may be provided by either wired or wireless communication. The transmis-
sion of sensor data using radio frequency might be used, for instance, in the
tracking of goods in supply chain management. This application of radio
frequency identification (including RFID tags with sensors) corresponds to
the lower layers in the schematic model for a USN as follows:
RFID Tags: An RFID processor that may be either passive or active (with
potential read/write functions, wider communication ranges, and indepen-
dent power supplies). An active RFID chip is capable of two-way commu-
nication, whereas a passive tag is read only.
Ubiquitous Sensor Networks • 141
RFID Reader: The reader senses and “reads” the information on the tag
and passes it on for analysis.
RFID Middleware: Like the USN, the RFID network may have its own
software for the collection and processing of data.
As illustrated in Figure 5.1, a USN is not simply a network but can be an
intelligent information infrastructure used to support a multitude of differ-
ent applications. USNs can deliver information to “anywhere, anytime, by
anyone.” But it is the ability to deliver the information also to “anything”
which is groundbreaking. Value is added to the information by using “con-
text awareness,” which comes from detecting, storing, processing, and inte-
grating situational and environmental information gathered from sensor
tags and/or sensor nodes affixed to any object. For instance, context aware-
ness may relate to where the object is located, whether it is moving or sta-
tionary, whether it is hot or cold, and so on.
WPAN (Wireless Personal Area Network)

A wireless personal area network (WPAN) is a personal, short distance area
wireless network (typically extending up to 10 meters in all directions) for
interconnecting devices centered around an individual person’s workspace.
WPANs address wireless networking and mobile computing devices such
as PCs, PDAs, peripherals, cell phones, pagers, and consumer electronics.
Characteristics of a USN
• Small
• Scale sensor nodes
• Limited power requirements that can be harvested (e.g., solar power)
or stored (e.g., battery)
• Able to withstand harsh environmental conditions
• Fault tolerant and designed to cope with high possibility of node failures
• Support for mobility
• Dynamic network topology
• Able to withstand communication failures
• Heterogeneity of nodes
• Large scale of deployment
disaster/crisis
management
USN
Services Structural USN Applications
Logistics health
monitoring Disaster Military field
Surveilance Health Care
Agricultural
ubiquitous Control USN Middleware
Spatial
web Context modeling Information
services management management
USN Directory Content Management
Service Management
Infrastructure
Gateway
sink Gateway
Mobile Gateway sink
node
RFID node
sink USN Access Networking
Reader
node
RFID USN
Reader Bridge
Sensor Networking
Wireless
Sensor
Network
FIGURE 5.1 Schematic layers of Ubiquitous Sensor Networks.
5.2 Applications of USNs

Ubiquitous Sensor Networks provide potentially endless opportunities in a
diverse number of different applications. Some of them are listed as follow:
1. Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS)
A network of sensors set up throughout a vehicle can interact with its
surroundings to provide valuable feedback on local roads, weather, and
traffic conditions to the car driver, enabling adaptive drive systems to
respond accordingly. For instance, this may involve automatic activa-
tion of braking systems or speed control via fuel management systems.
Condition and event detection sensors can activate systems to main-
tain driver and passenger comfort and safety through the use of airbags
and seatbelt pre-tensioning. Sensors for fatigue and mood monitoring
based on driving conditions, driver behavior, and facial indicators can
interact to ensure safe driving by activating warning systems or directly

controlling the vehicle. A broad citywide, distributed sensor network
could be accessed to indicate traffic flows, administer tolls, or provide
continually updated destination routing feedback to individual vehicles.
The feedback may be based on global and local information, combining
GPS information with cellular networks.
2. Robotic Landmine Detection
A sensor network could be used for the detection and removal or deacti-
vation of landmines. The USN enables the safe removal of landmines in
former war zones, reducing the risk to those involved in the removal pro-
cess. The utilization of advanced sensor technology to detect explosives
may help overcome difficulties in detection of unencased landmines.
3. Water Catchment and Eco System Monitoring
A network of sensors can be utilized to monitor water flows into
catchment areas and areas where access is difficult or expensive. This
information can be combined with other sensor networks providing
information on water quality and soil condition, together with long-
term weather forecasting, to assist with the equitable and efficient dis-
tribution of water for irrigation and environmental purposes. Similar
technology can be utilized to provide an early warning system for flood-
prone regions, particularly for flash flooding.
4. Real-Time Health Monitoring
A network of advanced biosensors can be developed using nanotech-
nology to conduct point-of-care testing and diagnosis for a broad vari-
ety of conditions. This technology will reduce delays in obtaining test
results, thus having a direct bearing on patient recovery rates or even
survival rates. On the basis of the sensed data, physicians can make
a more rapid and accurate diagnosis and recommend the appropriate
treatment. USNs may also enable testing and early treatment in remote
locations, as well as assist triage on location at accident or disaster sites.
5. Bushfire Response
A low-cost distributed sensor network for environmental monitoring
and disaster response could assist in responding to bushfires by using an
integrated network of sensors combining on-the-ground sensors, moni-
toring local moisture levels, humidity, wind speed, and direction with
satellite imagery to determine fire risk levels in targeted regions, and
offering valuable information on the probable direction in which fires

may spread. This type of USN can provide valuable understanding of
bushfire development and assist authorities in organizing a coordinated
disaster response by providing early warning for high-risk areas.
6. Remote Sensing in Disaster Management
Remote sensing systems have proven to be invaluable sources of infor-
mation that enable the disaster management community to make critical
decisions based on information obtained from study of satellite imagery
for better preparedness and initial assessments of the nature and mag-
nitude of damage and destruction. Information derived from satellites
can be combined with on-the-ground data from a USN. High-resolution
remote sensing data is especially useful for documenting certain hazards,
for determining where to locate response facilities and supplies, and for
planning related facilities for reconstruction and relocation activities.
Data availability and its timely delivery are crucial to saving lives and
property during disasters, and technological developments are making
positive contributions in this area. Some of the most significant progress
in disaster reduction is being made in mitigation, using historical and con-
temporary remote sensing data in combination with other geospatial data
sets as input to compute predictive models and early warning systems.
7. Detecting, Tracking, Monitoring
The unique potential and particular characteristics of sensor nodes and
network infrastructure have encouraged researchers to identify potential
applications in a diverse range of domains. Nevertheless, in most cases,
applications can be assigned to one of the following three broad categories:
1) Detection – for example, of temperatures passing a particular
threshold, of intruders, of bushfires, of landmines in former war zones,
and so on;
2) Tracking – for example, of items in supply chain management, of
vehicles in intelligent transport systems, of cattle/beef in the food chain,
of workers in dangerous work environments such as mines or offshore
platforms, and so forth,
3) Monitoring – for example, of a patient’s blood pressure, of inhos-
pitable environments such as volcanoes or hurricanes, of the structural
health of bridges or buildings, or of the behavior of animals in their
indigenous habitats and so on.
5.3 Monitoring Volcanic Eruptions with a USN
When earthquake or eruption

occurs, each node sends event
report to base station
GPS Receiver
Base station
Radio Modem
Long distance radio
Link
FIGURE 5.2 Wireless seismic and acoustic sensor node with volcano monitoring network
architecture.
Studying active volcanoes typically involves sensor arrays built to collect

seismic and infrasonic (low-frequency acoustic) signals. This was to study
the use of tiny, low-power wireless sensor nodes for geophysical studies,
which have advantages in cost, size, weight, and power supply over the tra-
ditionally used sensors. Sensor nodes driven by conventional cell batteries
were deployed over a 3 km2 aperture on the upper flanks of the volcano.
The system routed the collected data through a multi-hop network and
over a long distance radio link to an observatory, where a laptop logged
the collected data, as can be seen in Figure 5.2. Volcano research requires
extremely high data quality and reliability. Only one missed or corrupt sam-
ple can invalidate an entire record. Similar architectures of sensor networks
may be used to monitor and research different natural phenomena, as well
as in the field of disaster detection and prevention.
Domains in which USNs are used include civil engineering, educa-
tion, healthcare, agriculture, environmental monitoring, military, trans-
port, disaster response, and many more. In developing countries, specific
applications could cover domains where network engineers face particular
challenges such as unreliable power supply, reduced budgets, or the dan-
ger of theft. The falling prices of sensor units and RFID tags is greatly
increasing a range of potential applications. Furthermore, the possibility of
operating independently from electricity networks, by using conventional

batteries, or depending upon availability of solar or geothermal power as
energy supplies, can make sensor networks more widely available in differ-
ent environments.
Irrespective of whether they are used in developed or developing coun-
tries, USNs need to be adaptable and highly application specific. Some of
the design decisions that must be made before the deployment of a USN
include:
• The types of sensors to be employed (e.g., chemical sensors to monitor
hydrogen sulphide concentration in a gas pipeline or motion sensors
deployed in a area with seismic activity);
• The choice of the communication protocols and medium (depending
on distance, transmission rate); and
• The energy supply of the nodes (e.g., can batteries be easily replaced?
This might be possible in a light sensor in the house, but not if sensors
are deployed in a mine field).
5.4 WSNs on Regional Environmental Protection

Regional Environment refers to a particular geographical space of the
natural environment or social environment. Different regions face differ-
ent environmental problems. Wireless sensor networks are widely used in
regional environmental protection. By dropping a large number of sensor
nodes in a target area through aircraft, the nodes will monitor the changes
in the surrounding environment and send data sent back to the base. In this
way, one can easily monitor the environment changes. WSNs in regional
environmental protection have very good prospects.
Regional environments can be divided into natural regional areas, social
regional areas, agricultural regional environments, and tourism regional
environments by function. They all have unique structures and character-
istics. The divisions of regional environment are designed to contrast with
each other, and one can study and solve environmental problems by their
particular characteristics. With the rapid development of economies, envi-
ronmental problems have become increasingly prominent. As the develop-
ment of a region’s industrial production and some other factors, regional
environmental water pollution, atmospheric pollution, land pollution, and
so on become increasingly serious. Wireless sensor network design meets
the needs of a particular application, as it is an application-based network.

Its features are particularly applicable to regional environmental protection.
The application of sensor networks for environmental monitoring changes
the model of single fixed-point sensors in fixed time and a fixed area as in
the past. It can attach the targets of multi-angle observations (more types
of sensors), synchronization, and continuous measurement. So the data are
more comprehensive and more representative. It is easier to describe time
and space changes and find the internal relations of observation targets.
The main applications of WSNs on regional environmental protection can
be divided into information collection, environmental monitoring, security
warning, and so on.
Information Collection
Sensors can collect light, temperature, sound, humidity, and other environ-
mental data. In a regional environment, on the basis of these data, one can
make some decisions. In the agricultural regional environment, the most
common application of WSNs is farmland information collection. The
growth of crops is impacted by natural conditions, such as light, tempera-
ture, and humidity. Information about crop water demand is the basis for
adequate irrigation. We also can use sensor nodes to track crop growth con-
ditions and research the impact of environment change on crops to provide
real-time decision making. The volume of data on farmland is very large,
and using the network can be a lot more convenient to achieve long-distance
data transmission, but laying cable networks in the farmland on the one
hand is not easy for farming, and on the other hand the costs are higher. So
WSNs are a good option.
Environment Monitoring
The pollution areas that need to be monitored are always places that are
hard for humans as well as big devices to reach. But wireless sensor net-
works can be quickly deployed, and self organization and high reliability
are applicable in such an environment. For example, to monitor the atmo-
sphere, traditional manual sampling can only monitor the average concen-
tration of gas at the scene within a certain period of time, cannot provide
real-time values, and the results of monitoring are greatly impacted by man-
made factors. The use of large-scale automation equipment is expensive.
The device is too complex and difficult to maintain. It is very hard to use
in the country scale. The atmospheric monitoring system based on wireless
sensor networks can effectively meet the needs of real-time monitoring.
The atmospheric monitoring system based on wireless sensor networks has

the features of low cost, easy implementation, and high reliability. Similarly,
this application can be used in the areas of water pollution, soil pollution,
and so on.
Security Warning
There are many potential safety problems hidden in regional natural
environments and industrial production. These problems are always hid-
den, unexpected, and unpredictable; they often lead to some unpredict-
able consequences, resulting in huge losses. Wireless sensor networks are
an important means of early warning. WSNs are widely use in industrial
production, construction, transport, medical, and other fields for security
warning. For example, forest fires are one of the most serious disasters
that make destruction of forest resources and threats to human living envi-
ronments. Prevention and monitoring of forest fires has become a major
research focus for forest fire departments around the world. One can build
and import wireless sensor networks to monitor forest fires. The system
is capable of real-time monitoring of the measured parameters (such as
temperature, relative humidity, etc.) and can send the information to the
monitoring center computer, center analyzing the data, compare it with
forest resource base data, and then determine whether there is a potential
forest fire in the field. This will be an effective basis for the departments to
make a decision.
Main parameters of regional agriculture environments

The typical application for agriculture regional environments is collect-
ing information of farmland in a large area as a basis for decision making.
Growth of crops is influenced by various factors, mainly the water con-
tent in soil, soil temperature, air temperature, air humidity, light intensity,
and other factors. A regional agriculture environment has the following
characteristics:
1. The coverage of farmland in the region can be significant and broad.
2. Farmland environments are often not available for laying a cable net-
work, so we can’t communicate through a cable network.
3. The farmland is accessible, and not a very dangerous environment.
However, the equipment needs to work in the open environment, so it
requires high equipment reliability. The characteristics of the agricultural
environment ask for certain requirements for a sensor network node. The
nodes working in these areas need to be small in size, pollution free, with
environmental adaptability and low power consumption, and so on.
Network Structure
A sensor network is mainly composed of the communications nodes, sink
nodes, and the application server. Wireless sensor network nodes complete
the data collection, preparation, and communication work. Clusters are
formed by adjacent network nodes, and each node sends the data to the
head node of the cluster. The head node compresses the data and sends it to
the sink node. In fact, the sink node is the gateway node, and is responsible
for the network initiation, maintenance, and data collection, and for send-
ing data to the control center. The monitor center is responsible for data
processing and network management. There is some specific software in
the control center that does the job of data processing and makes decisions.
As farmland is a place that human can easily to reach, one can artifi-
cially divide farmland into multiple regions, and each region forms a cluster
of network topology. Inside each cluster a head node is assigned that is
responsible for communication with the gateway. And since the agricultural
environment may not have an off-the-shelf cable network, one can consider
two communications structures:
Node
Sink
Cluster Internet / Mobile
Node
networks (GSM
CDMA)
Cluster Information Center

Node
FIGURE 5.3 Network structure.
1. One in which the gateway communicates with the server control cen-
ter through the cable network.
2. In the mobile networks such as the GSM or CDMA coverage area.
One can use mobile base stations as a transmission medium. The sink node
sends the data to base stations, and the base station data is then transmitted
to the monitoring center. The structure of this network can be shown as
follows as in Figure 5.3.
Node hardware design
The communications node is composed of the sensing element, the cen-
tral processing unit, the wireless transceiver, and the power components.
Based on agricultural environmental monitoring, one needs to use light,
temperature, and humidity sensors. The node structure is as follows in
Figure 5.4.
Optical Sensor
Temperature Sensor
Micro processor Wireless

Humidity Sensor Module Communication
Module
Battery Module
FIGURE 5.4 Node hardware structure.
In order to comprehensively monitor light, air temperature, air humidity,

soil temperature, and soil moisture, the sensing modules need to use the
optical sensors, temperature sensors, and humidity sensors to achieve the
perception of different data collection. The microprocessor module is the
main control unit. It is responsible for the collection of sensor data and
does pretreatment of quantifying and coding. The microprocessor also con-
trols communications units to send data at the appropriate time. ATMEL
Company’s Atmega16 microprocessor may be used for this. This MCU is
chosen because of having faster, stronger, anti-interference, and C language
programming. The wireless communications module uses an XBeePro
radio chip. The chip uses IEE802.15.4 specifications. The available power
modules are Zn/MnO2 alkaline batteries, nickel metal hydride batteries,
lithium ion batteries, and so on. Each battery has its own characteristics.
Lithium ion batteries have the advantages of light weight, and large capacity
and energy density. Lithium ion batteries can meet the requirements for
volume, environmental adaptation, discharge stability, cost, and so on.
Software Design
Software systems can be divided into node software modules and control
center software modules. Node software needs a serial communication
module, and a data conversion and an amendment module. The serial com-
munication module is responsible for communicating with gateway nodes,
extracting sensors’ collected information, and communicating with nodes
to address information from relevant data frames. The serial data conver-
sion module is responsible for collecting information from the sensors into
digital information. The monitoring center software is the information
processing center. The software must receive and store the data from the
network. To provide a user-friendly interface, the software still needs to
show the data in a variety of ways and make relevant decisions.
This is a typical scheme of a WSN in a regional agricultural environ-
ment. Different applications have different characteristics and parameters.
They need to use different network topologies and different hardware.
Compared with traditional methods for regional environmental protec-
tion, wireless sensor networks are a more convenient, real time, reliable,
and effective means. They are a good option for regional environment
protection.
5.5 The Development of USNs for a Rice Paddy Crop Monitoring

Application
The advantages of WSNs in agriculture are as follows: suitability for
distributed data collecting and monitoring in tough environments, capablil-
ity to handle an economical climate and to control irrigation and nutrient
supply to produce the best crop condition, increasing production efficiency
while decreasing cost, and providing real-time information about the fields
that enable farmers to adjust strategies at any time. The parts of the WSN
system will be able to communicate with lower power consumption in order
to deliver real data.
Wireless transmission can reduce and simplify wiring, allow the sensor
to be deployed at remote, dangerous, and hazardous locations, is easily
installed, and can be integrated for extremely low cost, small size, and low
power requirement and mobility.
Sensor
Node 2 Sensor
Sensor Node 4
Node1 Sensor
Paddy Node 5
Field Area
Sensor Irrigation Area
Sensor
Node 3
Node 6
Nodes Coordinator
Base Station
GSM Modem
FIGURE 5.5 Wireless Sensor Network routing via PAN (both ad hoc or planned network).
Figure 5.5 describes the overview of the system consisting of a node

coordinator/gateway and a few sensor nodes routed via a PAN (personal
area network) that can be added to or reduced depending on the require-
ment of the farming areas. A general-purpose node, which has standard
measurement parameter sensors for factors such as ambient air tempera-
ture and humidity, soil pH and moisture, are integrated in all nodes. These
nodes will route to their neighborhood node(s) until the beacons reach a
coordinator destination. The coordinator will coordinate the data collection
from each existing PAN address within the network system. Then there are
two directions the data will go; it is first linked to the server data base sys-
tem to be recorded and revealed on an Internet web page, and a real-time
alert system using a SMS system via a GSM modem to the person in charge
of a cell phone.
The node architecture and hardware is driven by an MCU produced by
Microchip, which is a PIC16F684 NanoWatt processor core, and features
low current and voltage consumption. This chip is a 14 pin 8-Bit FLASH
CMOS MCUs, with 12 I/O and 8 ADC channels at 10-bit maximum resolu-
tion. It consumes a current of less than 500μA at 2.0V and a 20 MHz clock
cycle. Another series of PIC16F88X chip also can be used as an alternative
for more I/O pins (28/40) with a dynamic CPU clock start-up and ultra low
power at sleeping mode (approximately 50 nA). Figure 5.6 (a) describes the
system architecture that inserts the contribution of a power management
system that will utilize two batteries for night time and day time opera-
tion. The power management system will manage solar power direction
for charging the secondary battery, while the primary battery will remain
working until at a certain level of voltage drop, it will trigger an alternate

charging-working process for these two batteries. This method of power
management system claims a better power life for nodes up to 25% due
to the improved charging concept. Sharing the solar energy for charging a
battery while at the same time drawing current from the same battery will
lose much efficiency of the battery life, and will lead to insufficient charging
and a hassle during night operation or dim daylight. The charging engine
for the lithium-ion 3.7V cell is driven by a MCP73832 charge pump chip
with programmable charging current at 15mA-500mA. The power supply
of the sensor node also will apply the low-drop out (LDO) regulator instead
of a linear regulator that creates a lot of voltage drops and higher noise for
the switching regulator. The system has the capability to attach more sen-
sors such as the wind speed, dissolved oxygen, water pH, solar radiation,
and other analog or digital interfaces to the MCUs. Figure 5.6 (b) describes
the algorithm sequence for working-charging batteries in the node power
management system.
Start
2 High Precision Temperature

I C bus
PIC & Humidity Sensor Battery1 Check
UART 16F884 ADC1
nanoWatt Soil Moisture Sensor
MCU ADC2 Above 3.0 V?
Soil pH Sensor
DC Power Yes
XbeeTM
2.4 Ghz Management
System Charge Battery2
ISM
Yes
Full Charged?
Solar Battery-1 Li-Ion
Cells No Yes
4.5 V Battery-2 Li-Ion
Charge Battery1
FIGURE 5.6 (a) Sensor node architecture system that features optimal power management
system and (b) Battery management algorithm.
The wireless and networking activities will take place after the MCU reads
all the ADC values from the sensor output voltage and sends it to FLASH
memory. The digital sensors like the I2C bus type will send the readings
after the acknowledgment bits sent by the MCU. This IEEE 802.15.4
compatible module has wide range of 65,000 unique networking addresses,

and has the capablility to build peer to peer, point to point, and point to
multi-point topologies. This module is programmed using both AT com-
mand and X-CTU software provided as free software.
A network coordinator as the gateway of accessing the outside world will
manage the operation of the wireless networking sensor nodes. This board
has the same architecture as the node type, except the MCU has exter-
nal UART communication with the GSM/GPRS 900/1800MHz modem to
send the alert massages via SMS and RS232 serial communication to the
server PC. PIC MCU establishes communication together with the GSM
modem using AT command to give instant alerts via sms, like the over limit
or under limit condition for paddy field environments, such as floods. The
node coordinator also becomes a base station that is linked with the LAN
and TCP/IP for data storage and a web-based server.
The power management system consists of dual Li-ion/Li-Po batteries
that will support the node’s life for 24 hour a day operation. This archi-
tecture will provide better hassle-free node operation that utilizes a solar
source via a separate battery system when charging and consuming at the
same time.
Classification of possible application examples

As the technology gains popularity, research is becoming important in both
theoretical and application domains. Two classes of application examples
are explained as follows.
Stationary Network
A stationary network is a network of sensor nodes in which each sensor
node’s position is fixed relative to the base station and other nodes in the
network. A demonstrated application in this direction is humidity monitor-
ing in a paddy field. Data acquired by a mote is transmitted to the base
station which then processes the information and triggers necessary actions
such as localized watering. There are two possible cases to transmit data.
When a node is in direct wireless contact, that is, in the range of the base
station, direct communication is possible. When a node is not in range,
it transmits data in an ad hoc environment also referred to as multi-hop.
Implementation of an efficient multi-hop system requires optimal routing
to facilitate the shortest route, reduced power consumption, and improved
transmission.
Network in Motion
An example in this category is a herd of animals on an extensive farm, where
each animal is equipped with a sensor node. The animals are in constant
motion relative to each other as well as the base station. Such complicated
mobility management requires an even more sophisticated implementation
of routing algorithms. In order to maximally benefit from wireless sensor
networks of this type, additional hardware requirements in the form of GPS
devices and other forms of mote location are needed.
5.6 WSNs in the Smart Grid

The power grid is not only an important part of the electric power industry,
but also an important part of a country’s sustainability. With the depen-
dence on electric power gradually increasing, demand for the reliability
and quality of the power grid is also increasing in the world. A smart elec-
tricity grid opens the door to new applications with far-reaching impacts:
providing the capacity to safely integrate more renewable energy sources
(RES), electric vehicles, and distributed generators into the network; deliv-
ering power more efficiently and reliably through demand response and
comprehensive control and monitoring capabilities; using automatic grid
reconfiguration to prevent or restore outages (self-healing capabilities); and
enabling consumers to have greater control over their electricity consump-
tion and to actively participate in the electricity market. Sensors will be a
key enabler for the smart grid to reach its potential. The idea behind the
“smart” grid is that the grid will respond to real time demand; in order to
do this, it will require sensors to provide this “real time” information. WSNs
as “smart sensing peripheral information” can be an important means to
promote smart grid technology development. WSN technology in the smart
grid will also further promote the industrial development of WSNs.
Online monitoring system for transmission lines

The condition of transmission lines is directly affected by wind, rain, snow,
fog, ice, lightning, and other natural forces; at the same time industrial and
agricultural pollution are also a direct threat to the safe operation of trans-
mission lines. The operating environment of transmission lines and the
operating states are very complex, which requires more automatic monitor-
ing, more control, and protection equipment to automatically send alarms
when accidents occur and dispatch strategy adjustment according to the
operation mode, so that the faults will be processed at the early phase or be
isolated in a small range.
Traditional wired communications cannot meet the communication
needs of online monitoring of transmission lines. WSNs have an advantage
of the strong ability to adapt to harsh environments, large area coverage,
self-organization, self-configuration, and strong utility independence, and
are very suitable for data communication monitoring systems for transmis-
sion lines.
Application
Layer
Sub station
Network Electric
Layer Communication GPRS, DCMA
network
Communication Agent
Wireless sensor network
UVA patrol Video surveillance
Communication
Perception Agent
Layer
Transportation
Transportation line
line monitoring
monitoring
FIGURE 5.7 General architecture of online monitoring systems for a transmission line
based on WSNs.
With the technical advantages of WSNs, establishing a full range,

multi-element online monitoring system can send timely warnings of disas-
ters, rapidly locate the positions of faults, sense transmission line faults,
shorten the time of fault recovery, and thus improve the reliability of the
power supply. WSN use can not only effectively prevent and reduce power
equipment accidents, when combining with the conductor temperature,
environmental, and meteorological real-time online monitoring, but can also
provide data to support transmission efficiency improvement and increasing
dynamic capacity for transmission lines. The general architecture of online
monitoring systems for transmission lines is shown in Figure 5.7.
Intelligent monitoring and early warning system for substations

After decades of development, the domestic substation automation
technology has reached the international standards level. Most of the
new substations, regardless of voltage level difference, adopt integrated

automation systems. Compared with the conventional substations, digital
substations focus on the network information digitization, substation infor-
mation standardization, and networked transmission. For substations in
smart grids, more attention is focused on smart power equipment, informa-
tion exchange, interoperability, and the intelligence application functions
of the inner station. Now many smart monitoring functions can be realized
and can improve intelligent substation management, including transformer/
breaker/temperature monitoring, current leakage monitoring of lightning
arresters, electric leakage monitoring equipment, SF6 leakage monitor-
ing of combined electric equipment, secondary equipment environmental
monitoring, equipment anti-theft monitoring, and so on.
Application
Work Backup Server Database
Station server server
Application Fire wall Data Access

server Server
Communication
Layer
Optical fiber Wireless
private network TD-SCDMA private
network
Acquisition layer
Equipment Substation Transformer Transportation
status Sensors line
monitoring Transportation Other electric monitoring
line equipment
FIGURE 5.8 Architecture of operation status monitoring for equipment.
Applications of WSNs can provide reliable, accurate, real-time, safety,

sufficient information for substation management not confined to the
traditional electrical quantities information of telemetry, remote commu-
nication, remote control, and remote adjustment, but also including equip-
ment information, such as cooling system condition, circuit breaker action
times, energy storage state of the transmission mechanism, size of breaking
current, and environmental information, video information, and so on, to
finally achieve digitalization of information description, integration of data

acquisition, data transmission by network, intelligent data processing, data
display visualization, and scientific production decision making. Figure 5.8
shows the architecture of operation status monitoring for equipment.
Online Monitoring and Early Warning Systems for Distribution

Networks
Distribution networks directly connect the power grid with users, and
distribute electrical energy to them. Reliability and quality of the distri-
bution network is an important element for reliable power supplies. The
distribution network consists of primary equipment such as feeders, distri-
bution transformers, circuit breakers, switches, and secondary equipment
such as relay protections, automatic devices, measurements and meters,
communication and control equipment, and so forth. Figure 5.9 shows
WSN technology used in distribution network monitoring applications.
Municipal
Distribution Company
equipment online Servers
monitoring
Convergence controller
Fiber Reserved TD-LTE
Fiber channel channel channel
Distribution line BS BS
ONU
BS
Sink node
WSN
WSN Sink node
Sensors Sensors Sensors
FIGURE 5.9 WSN technology used in distribution network monitoring applications.
Distribution networks have characteristics of a massive number of points,

large coverage areas, and long-distance power lines. The application of
WSNs in distribution fields can strengthen management, save manpower,
improve the reliability of the power supply, and accelerate the recovery
efficiency of fault handling. The application of WSN technology in power

distribution networks can provide protection and support for the construc-
tion of distribution networks in the following aspects:
1. By deploying integrated sensing equipment, power quality variations
and load situation of large electricity can be monitored; moreover,
the accuracy and timeliness of voltage, current, harmonics, and other
information are improved.
2. By utilizing RFID, navigation, video surveillance, and smart wearable
technology together, the capability of real-time monitoring of the status
of distribution equipment and environmental parameters is strength-
ened. It can improve the fault location of distribution lines.
3. By monitoring distribution line conditions in underground distribu-
tion pipe networks, higher automatic levels of field operation monitor-
ing and anti-theft facilities can be achieved.
Smart electricity consumption services
Intelligent electricity consumption services rely on a strong power grid and
the concept of modern management, based on advanced metering, high
efficiency control, high-speed communication, and quick energy storage
technology, to realize the real-time interaction between power networks,
customer energy flow, information flow, and business flow.
WSNs can connect the terminal equipment of the supply side and the
user side with sensors to form a complete interactive network for electric
energy consumption information and realize electricity information acqui-
sition in a complex environment. Information integration analysis based on
WSNs can guide the user or directly adjust the electricity consumption style
to achieve the best configuration of power resources and reduce the elec-
trical supply costs, improving reliability and efficiency. WSNs have broad
application prospects in intelligent electricity consumption fields such as
intelligent communities, intelligent industrial parks, and so forth.
The electric energy data acquisition system is a basis for intelligent
electricity consumption services. The system could comprehensively collect
several kinds of large user data. This includes data for special transformers,
medium and small users of special transformers, three-phase general busi-
ness users, single-phase general industrial and commercial users, as well
as resident users and public distribution transformer data for the examina-
tion of metering points. This data can be combined to construct integrated
power information platforms. The architecture of a WSN-based electric

energy data acquisition system is shown in Figure 5.10.
Wireless
gateway Fiber / GPRS Wireless
Concentrator TD-LTE 230 Broadband
PLC gateway
Broadband PLC
WSN
Acquisition acquisition
gateway gateway
Acquisition
Terminal Building Building
block block
Intelligent ammeter Intelligent ammeter Intelligent ammeter

FIGURE 5.10 Architecture of a WSN-based electric energy data acquisition system.
5.7 Smartwater Sensor Networks

Today, the world’s water consumption is 300% of what it was in 1950. The
strong growth of the world’s population combined with a strong growth
of what is known as the middle class will continue to create increasing
demand for the planet’s limited resources. An example of a key resource in
this context is the availability of clean water. In addition to the usual gov-
ernmental regulation and policing of the exploitation of natural resources,
many corporations are seeing the impact on the environment. They also
see social and commercial advantages in taking steps to ensure the negative
impact their operations have on natural resources is minimal.
Sustainability (water resource focus)
There are share price implications as well as regulatory requirements that
drive this new green behavior. It can be said that it is generally accepted in
modern society that the perceived need to better manage the environmen-
tal impact corporations have on scarce resources and the CO2 footprint as
an indication of pollution costs to society versus profit will become increas-

ingly important.
Thus, the trend for corporations to invest in this area in addition to
governments creating regulations demanding compliance to new environ-
mental rules and creating new national market entry costs is clear.
When focusing on clean water, a monitoring system has to be built
to determine base line quality as well as monitor the various potential
sources of contaminants to clean water. Traditional operational technology
systems are not usually created to monitor potential pollutants, thus new
sensors and actuators need to be used also to monitor airborne pollutants
that are usually the most difficult pollutants to track and manage (shown
in Figure 5.11). The information gathered can not only be used as a key
performance indicator (KPI) dashboard, but can also be used to predict
water quality based on real-time monitoring of related events, such as man-
made (pollution) or environmental (weather) events. This can be useful
for corporations who are always working within an international regulatory
framework, and can potentially lead to additional value creation in the form
of emission/pollution certificates.
CO2 SF6 CH4 N 2O HFCS PCFS
SCOPE 1 SCOPE 3
SCOPE 2 DIRECT
INDIRECT
Purchased INDIRECT
Electricity
for own use Production of Employee
purchased Business Travel
Company Owned Materials
Vehicles Waste Disposal
Fuel Combustion Outsourced Contractor

Activities Owned Vehicles
Scope 2 : Emissions Scope 1 : Emissions Scope 3 : Indirect
from purchased from direct on-site emissions from supply
energy / utilities sources chain or services
FIGURE 5.11 Airborne pollutants greenhouse gases (GHG) as a threat to water.

5.8 Intelligent Transportation Using WSNs

Wireless sensing in intelligent transportation differs on several points
from the traditional concepts and design requirements for WSNs. In most
cases, sensors can rely on some sort of infrastructure for power supply, for
example, the aspect of energy efficiency is usually of secondary importance
in these systems. WSN applications in intelligent transportation can be
subdivided into two categories:
1. Stationary sensor networks, either on board a vehicle or as part of a
traffic infrastructure.
2. Floating sensor networks, in which individual vehicles or other mobile
entities act as the sensors.
The latter category comprises applications related to the tracking and
optimization of the flow of goods, vehicles, and people, whereas the former
comprises mainly applications that were formerly covered by wired sensors.
Sensing of traffic flows

Intelligent traffic management solutions rely on the accurate measurement
and reliable prediction of traffic flows within a city. This includes not only
an estimation of the density of cars on a given street or the number of
passengers inside a given bus or train but also the analysis of the origins
and destinations of the vehicles and passengers. Monitoring the traffic situ-
ation on a street or intersection can be achieved by means of traditional
wired sensors, such as cameras, inductive loops, and so on. While wireless
technology can be beneficial in reducing deployment costs of such sensors,
it does not directly affect the accuracy or usefulness of the measurement
results.
However, by broadening the definition of the term “sensor” and making
use of wireless technology readily available in many vehicles and smart
phones, the vehicles themselves as well as the passengers using the public
transportation systems can become “sensors” for the accurate measurement
of traffic flows within a city.
Techniques for collecting traffic flow data from vehicles are collectively
referred to as floating car data (FCD). This includes methods relying on
a relatively small number of vehicles explicitly transmitting their position
information to a central server (e.g., taxis or buses sending their position
obtained via GPS) as well as approaches relying on location information
of mobile phones obtained from real-time location databases of cellular
network operators. The latter approach does not actually involve any sens-
ing by the vehicle itself, but still makes use of a wireless network (i.e., the
existing cellular network) to sense or rather infer the current character-
istics of traffic flows. The technical challenges lie particularly in the pro-
cessing of the potentially large amounts of data, the distinction between
useful and non-useful data, and the extrapolation of the actual traffic flow
data from the observation of only a subset of all vehicles. Extensions of the
FCD idea involving information gathered from the on-board electronics
of the vehicles have been proposed under the term extended floating car
data (XFCD). Collecting and evaluating data from temperature sensors,
rain sensors, anti-lock braking system (ABS), Electronic Stability Control
(ESC), and traction control systems of even a relatively small number of
cars can be used to derive real-time information about road conditions
which can be made available to the public and/or used for an improved pre-
diction of traffic flows based on anticipated behavior of drivers in response
to the road conditions.
Privacy issues must be taken into consideration whenever location or
sensor data is collected from private vehicles. However, this is a general
concern related to the monitoring of traffic flows, and schemes that don’t
make use of wireless technology (e.g., relying on license-plate recognition)
also have to consider the car owners’ privacy.
Equivalent to the measurement of vehicle movement by FCD,
passenger behaviour in public transportation systems can be analyzed with
the help of wireless technology. For example, electronic tickets, which typi-
cally employ RFID technology for registering the access to a subway sta-
tion, bus, or train, effectively turn the passenger into a part of a sensor
network, as shown in Figure 5.12.
The possibilities for gathering information about passenger movement
and behavior can be further increased if smart phones are used to store
electronic tickets. Especially for gathering information about intermo-
dal transportation habits of passengers, electronic ticket applications for
smart phones offer possibilities that conventional electronic tickets cannot
provide. It remains to be seen, however, to which extent users will be will-
ing to share position data in exchange for the convenience of using their
mobile phone as a bus or metro ticket.
City logistics
Urbanization is posing a lot of challenges, especially in rapidly developing
countries where already-huge cities are still growing and the increasingly
wealthy population leads to a constantly rising flow of goods into and out
of the city centers. Delivery vehicles account for a large portion of the air
pollution in the cities, and streamlining the flow of goods between the city
and its surroundings is the key to solving a lot of the traffic problems and
improving the air quality.
FIGURE 5.12 Electronic tickets for smarter travel.
A promising approach toward reducing the traffic load caused by delivery

vehicles is the introduction of urban consolidation centers (UCCs), that is,
warehouses just outside the city where all the goods destined for retailers
in a city are first consolidated and then shipped with an optimized rout-
ing, making the best possible use of truck capacity and reducing the total
number of vehicles needed and the total distance traveled for delivering all
goods to their destinations.
To achieve such optimization, careful analysis and planning of traffic
flows in the city as well as monitoring of the actual flow of the goods are
needed. Rather than just tracking a subset of vehicles as they move through
the city, tracking of goods at least at a pallet level is required. The pallet (or
other packaging unit) thus becomes the “sensor” for measuring the flow of
goods, and a combination of multiple wireless technologies (GPS, RFID,
WLAN, cellular) in combination with sophisticated data analysis techniques
are applied to obtain the required data for optimizing the scheduling and
routing of the deliveries and ensure timely arrival while minimizing the
environmental impact of the transportation.
Vehicles of all kinds rely on an increasingly large number of sensors to

ensure safe and smooth operation. This includes sensors primarily provid-
ing information to the driver as well as sensors that are part of the propul-
sion or vehicle dynamics systems. Due to the safety-critical nature of those
subsystems, wireless technology is not usually a feasible option for these
applications.
However, especially in large vehicles such as buses, trains, and
airplanes, a lot of sensors and actuators serve non-safety-critical purposes,
for example, monitoring cabin temperature, collecting data used in pre-
ventive maintenance of the vehicle, or monitoring the status of transported
goods. In railway applications, WSNs can play an important role in the
refurbishment of old carriages with state-of-the-art electrical systems. In
airplanes, saving the weight of copper or aluminium cables by applying
wireless sensors for non-critical applications is an important consider-
ation. Wireless sensors employing energy harvesting techniques have been
discussed even for monitoring the mechanical stress on composite materi-
als forming part of the aircraft structure. Wiring the sensors in such “smart
materials” would increase the weight of the structure and therefore signifi-
cantly reduce the advantages of the composite material over conventional
metal structures.
5.9 WSNs in Traffic Infrastructures

Traffic lights at intersections are usually controlled by units located close to
the intersection, taking inputs from a set of sensors (e.g., inductive loops)
as well as commands from a centralized control unit and switching the
individual lights (also known as signal heads) according to the traffic rules
and situational requirements.
With the number and complexity of sensors and display elements
increasing, the task of a traffic controller today is really based on commu-
nication rather than a pure switching of the connected components. Traffic
lights may be equipped with countdown timer displays, variable message
signs display updated speed limits, and optical or radar-based sensors
deliver information about the occupancy of individual lanes or the speed
of vehicles passing the intersection. Upgrading the infrastructure of an
existing intersection with state-of-the-art technology requires also provid-
ing the necessary communication links between sensors, signal heads, vari-
able message signs, traffic controllers, and other components.
Wireless technology can help reduce the cost by eliminating the need
to route communication cables (e.g., Ethernet) to all devices in an intersec-
tion. Such an installation will in most cases not be a pure sensor network, as
it will usually also include display components or actuators.
Interaction of the traffic infrastructure with vehicles through wireless
communication (e.g., granting priority to buses or emergency vehicles at
intersections) is another promising application for wireless technology in
traffic infrastructure. Though not all possible applications actually involve
the exchange of sensor data over the wireless communication links, there
are also a number of scenarios in which either vehicles share their sen-
sor data with the infrastructure elements (e.g., regarding speed when
approaching the intersection) or where the infrastructure provides sensor
data to the vehicles (e.g., regarding road congestion on the other side of the
intersection).
5.10 WSNs in Smart Homes

Faced with growing consumption and high energy costs, as well as the
scarcity of fossil fuels, all of the scenarios developed by public institutions
and experts to curb energy demand and our CO2 emissions at the same time
converge on energy efficiency being an absolute priority.
Based on this vision, the protocol of active control is articulated around
the three strategies to maximize building performance while making it
smart grid-compatible.
1. Act room by room: for maximizing the energy performance of a
building, it is necessary to optimize the services rendered to the
occupant, which is to say at the level of a room or a zone in a tertiary
building. Thanks to the zone control, the occupant can adapt the envi-
ronment to his or her activities and comfort.
2. Optimize energy supplies: to serve the needs of the occupants of a
building, it is necessary to optimize the supply of energy based on
the economic and carbon costs. The supply and distribution of energy
are then managed as a function of the sum of the needs of each loca-
tion. It enables control of the energy sources and the relationship
with the upstream ecosystem consisting of the district, city, and so on.
This strategy facilitates anticipation of the development of smart grids.
It creates a system where each level contributes to optimization at a
higher level. It also participates in developing the demand manage-
ment potential for electricity in buildings. Therefore, it is necessary to

move from vertical independent application control to a multi-appli-
cation control by zone.
3. Act on the engagement of the stakeholders: to improve the energy
performance of a building, it is necessary to establish an incremental
action plan to progressively look for sources of savings. However, the
needs differ depending on the stakeholders involved.
Information strategies must be implemented that are tailored to the spe-
cific needs of each stakeholder and their areas of responsibility for helping
them to make energy efficient decisions. Space and time fragmentation
of the building and its technical systems have a strong impact on the effi-
ciency of monitoring and energy savings through active control. Therefore,
the implementation of active control strategies modify the sensing and
control command architectures of active control solutions, to be based on
a zone control ecosystem as shown in Figure 5.14, where the comfort sen-
sor is one of the key elements. Further, this has been assessed on five pilot
sites representing different climatic zones, sectors, constructive age, heat-
ing energy, hot water energy, and owner type. The savings went from 25%
for areas residential areas up to 56% for schools. This is achieved as shown
in Figure 5.13.
Energies Distribution system Usage system Energy

Technical Technical services
systems vectors Rooms Applications
Product Emission OCCUPANT

equipment equipment Outlets Physical comfort
Electrical Activity
Distribution Pipes Psychological
Gas equipment Heating
Fuel Ducts comfort
Storage Wires Cooling
Renewable equipment Lighting Activity
Transformation DHW efficiency
equipment
BIQ : Intrinsic quality of the building envelope

Constructive system
Weather (temperature, wind, light)
FIGURE 5.13 Systemic approach of energy in buildings.

Upstream link homes
Comfort
Actuators
Occupation
Human being interface
FIGURE 5.14 Zone control.
5.11 Monitoring Systems for Structure

Sensor network monitoring applications include structural health (bridge,
building, dam, etc.) monitoring, home safety and intrusion detection, indus-
trial distribution management, and critical resource and environment (fire,
flooding, earthquake, etc.) surveillance. Most monitoring systems install
stationary sensor nodes at interest points at a small scale and then collect nec-
essary data to transmit to the central computers (e.g., sink nodes or manage-
ment system) for information processing. For example, Figure 5.15 represents
a legacy sensor network application of a reservoir remote monitoring system.
VMD
Sensor Node 1 User 1
Sensor Node 2
User 2
BTS MSC SMSC Server
Sensor Node N
User n
FIGURE 5.15 Legacy sensor network application.

The system collects information related to an open and close degree of

sluice gate, water quantity, and BOD (biochemical oxygen demand) from
sensors (sensor devices of Figure 5.15) installed around sluice gates. And
then it transmits collected information to the central monitoring system
(server of Figure 5.15) through BTS (base transceiver station) using wire-
less communication technologies such as HSDPA. The system analyzes
the information taken from plenty of places and then displays it through
a graphic user interface. Users can get analyzed results through SMS
(short message service) from the monitoring system. A building monitor-
ing system observes environmental information of temperature, human-
ity, CO2, and crack information of buildings in real-time, and stores the
information into databases using the Internet. This system can analyze
their variance in sensing values and environmental information of the
special zone so that it can estimate energy consumption of buildings.
Analyzed and estimated information is displayed on a PDA or website via
the Internet.
Representative WSN applications regarding ground environmental
monitoring are a landslide precaution system and geological struc-
ture monitoring system. These systems monitor a fault plane and a
landslide around primary national facilities. For example, Figure 5.16
illustrates a WSN-based, real-time landslide monitoring system. The
system has been developed to forecast landslides, rock falls, and soil
flow. In order to make predictions, the system keeps collecting moni-
toring data using several different sensors such as inclinometers,
its chain, tachymetry, and GPS. The data are visualized in the web-
based geographical information system WebGIS. With the analyzed
data, preliminary warnings are offered via WebGIS and then users are
informed of the warnings using SMS if the factor of safety gets lower
than a specified threshold value.
Mote
Internet
Gateway Analysis room

Sensor Surface signal
Column Sources
FIGURE 5.16 WSN-based real-time landslide monitoring system.
When collecting data from sensor nodes installed on the bridge, the
system monitors ambient vibration of the structure. The sensor nodes
have two types, an accelerometer sensor and a thermometer sensor con-
nected to a patch antenna; Data are collected in a PC station by wire-
less network provided by the patch antenna. The collected data are used
to analyze the structural dynamic of the bridge by estimating its modal
properties. Figure 5.17 shows the hardware block diagram of the sensor
nodes. Most of these systems consist of a small-scale network connected
to the sink node directly, so that their network expansion capability is a
limitation. Also, these systems have used a self-designed sensor format
and network.
Antenna
Accelerometer Board
Mote
Thermometer Radio
ADXL Low-pass filter ADC
ADXL Low-pass filter ADC MCU
SD Low-pass filter ADC

Flash
SD Low-pass filter ADC
FIGURE 5.17 A structural health monitoring system.
5.12 IP-WSN Based Integration System

Figure 5.18 shows the real-time global monitoring integration system.
The system consists of the ground/environment monitoring system,
video collection system, and environmental monitoring system using
ground mobility vehicles. The ground and environment monitoring sys-
tem measures information on microseism, minute displacement, strain
ratio, temperature, water level, water quality, exhaust/atmospheric gas,
soil, and so forth for chief national facilities. A star topology may be
used for a flatland including several types of farm fields, and a multi-hop
mesh topology is for trees, forests, hills, slanting surfaces, and winding
areas. The 400 MHz band may be a better choice because of diffraction.
The video collection system provides video information required for the
global monitoring system in liaison with closed-circuit television (CCTV)

systems built in a variety of public/private institutions. A star topology
and peer-to-peer topology may be used for network cameras for the
system. Also, it supports streaming services for real-time transport of
video data and transformation services for streaming the types of existing
CCTV videos.
Reader
interface
Reader WiBro/HSDPA
User interface
(Web Service) Capture
User (Ministry of Land) Interface
Environment Monitoring System
Internet Local Control System
User (National (DB Storage)
emergency management) Query
Integration System User (Electronic interface
(DB, Provider Server) Display)
User (The weather Center) IP Core network
User (Ministry of
Query interface National Defense)
User (TV Station)
Query Local Control System (DB Storage)
interface
Capture
User (Local Government) Interface
Local Control System Reader
(DB, Storage) LAN/WLAN
interface
Capture interface Reader
Reader LAN/WLAN/ interface GW Network
Camera
interface CDMA/HSDPA
Reader Reader
interface interface
Network Camera
GW
Video Information Monitoring System
Ground Information Monitoring System
FIGURE 5.18 An overall system designed for real-time global monitoring.
The environmental monitoring system using ground mobility vehicles

monitors a wide scope of areas at runtime by compensating the limit of
fixed monitoring systems using special purpose vehicles or public transpor-
tation equipped with mobile IP-WSN gateways and sensors. Its targets to
monitor include road conditions, road materials, road information, facilities

near roads, and information on the yellow dust. A star topology may be
mainly used in/on a vehicle, but a tree topology may be more useful due to
the limit of communication coverage caused by the deployment of sensor
nodes inside/outside the vehicle. The 2.4 GHz band may be a good choice
for this system.
The real-time global monitoring integration system works as follows.
In the video collection system, network cameras communicate with each
other via TCP/IP, and a base station is connected to the Internet through
LAN/WLAN, whereas other systems that deploy IP-WSNs and IP-WSN
gateways may be connected to the Internet via a wireless communication
medium (Wibro, HSDPA, CDMA, etc.) considering regional characteris-
tics of their deployment. Information gathered from each system is man-
aged by the local control system and it is stored in distributed databases in
request to a query. The integrated control center manages those databases.
The distributed databases can secure scalability, efficiency, and reliability
since they logically integrate the databases, which are distributed in mul-
tiple systems physically. For efficient management of system integration
and national-scale network infrastructure, the network protocols may be
standardized with IP-WSN for sensor networks, and standardized Reader/
Capture/Query interfaces may be applied for interoperation and integra-
tion of distributed databases and systems. In addition, standardized sens-
ing data formats may be beneficial to unify existing territorial monitoring
systems that have been operating separately. The system provides services
facilitating integrated territorial information to government-related orga-
nizations, local governments, individuals, and so forth in close liaison with
systems distributed throughout the country.
Summary
• Ubiquitous is derived from the Latin word ubique meaning
“everywhere,” as in the expression of 4A, anywhere, anytime, by
anyone and anything.
• The main components of a USN are the sensor network, access network,
middleware, applications platform, RFID tags, and so forth.
• A wireless personal area network (WPAN) is a personal, short
distance area wireless network for interconnecting devices centered
around an individual person’s workspace.
• Intelligent transportation, robotic landmine detection, water

catchment and ecosystem monitoring, bushfire response, detecting
tracking, and monitoring of the events are some of the applications
of USNs.
• A smart grid is a grid that will respond to real-time demand.
• Intelligent transportation is divided into a stationary sensor network
and a floating sensor network.
Questions
1. Define a ubiquitous sensor network.
2. What are the main components of USNs?
3. List the characteristics of a USN.
4. Define the term WPAN.
5. List the application area of USNs.
6. Write about volcanic eruptions with WSN monitoring.
7. With the help of diagram write about the main parameters of a
regional agriculture environment.
8. Explain the design of USNs for rice paddy crop monitoring.
9. Draw the general architecture of online monitoring systems for
transmission lines based on WSNs. Explain.
10. Write about intelligent monitoring and early warning systems for
substations.
11. Draw the architecture of a WSN-based electric energy data acquisi-
tion system.
12. Write in detail about WSN applications for smart water networks.
13. In detail write about intelligent transportation.
14. Explain WSN application for smart homes.
Further Reading
1. Attacks and Defenses of Ubiquitous Sensor Networks: A Systematic
Approach to Sensor Network Security by Tanya G. Roosta
2. Industrial Wireless Sensor Networks: Monitoring, Control, and

Applications by R. Budampati and S. Kolavennu
3. Industrial Wireless Sensor Networks: Applications, Protocols, and
Standards by V. Cagri Gungor and Gerhard P. Hancke
References
1. http://www.itu.int/dms_pub/itu-t/oth/23/01/T23010000040001PDFE.pdf
2. http://www.technicaljournalsonline.com/ijaers/20SEPTEMBER13/
350.pdf
3. http://www.iec.ch/whitepaper/pdf/iecWP-internetofthings-LR-en.pdf
CHAPTER
6
UNDERWATER WIRELESS
SENSOR NETWORKS
(UWSNS)
This chapter discusses the requirements of wireless sensor networks
for oceanographic and water monitoring.
6.1 Wireless Sensor Networks for Oceanographic Monitoring

Coastal marine systems are particularly vulnerable to the effects of human
activity attendant on industrial, tourist, and urban development. Information
and communications technologies offer new solutions for monitoring, such
ecosystems in real time. These systems are composed of sensor nodes,
frequently wireless, which transmit data to a sink node, in real time, on a
number of physical, chemical, and/or biological measurements (temperature,
pH, dissolved oxygen, salinity, turbidity, phosphates, chlorophyll, etc.).
The design, implementation and deployment of a WSN for oceano-
graphic applications poses new challenges different from the ones that arise
on land, as the impact of the marine environment on the sensor network limits
and affects its development. The following are some of the most important
differences:
• The marine environment is an aggressive one which requires greater
levels of device protection.
• Allowances must be made for movement of nodes caused by tides,
waves, vessels, and so on.
• Energy consumption is high since it is generally necessary to cover

large distances, while communications signals are attenuated due to
the fact that the sea is an environment in constant motion.
• The price of the instrumentation is significantly higher than in the case
of a land-sited WSN.
• There are added problems in deployment of and access to motes, the
need for flotation and mooring devices, possible acts of vandalism,
and others.
WSNs are largely designed and implemented ad hoc (buoys, electronics, and
software) and oceanographic sensors. The two broad categories of marine
wireless networks, depending on the data transmission medium that they
use, are as follows:
1. WSNs based on radio frequency (RF) aerial communications (hereafter
called Aerial WSNs or A-WSNs) and
2. Under Water Acoustic Sensor Networks (UW-ASNs).
In underwater conditions RF does not work well because radio waves
propagate only at very low frequencies (30–300 Hz), and special antennas
and a bigger power supply are required.
The limitations of UW-ASNs are
1. Bandwidth is severely limited
2. Propagation delays are five orders of magnitude greater than in terres-
trial radio frequency channels
3. Higher bit error rates
4. Temporary losses of connectivity
5. Limited battery power because solar energy cannot be used
UW-ASNs are the best solution for viable oceanographic monitoring at
great depths entailing the use of Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs)
equipped with underwater sensors.
A-WSNs consist of a set of nodes with scanty power supplies, which
moreover communicate with one another by way of low consumption radio
modules. In addition, they have one or more nodes with bigger power
supplies which act as sinks. These communicate with a remote station using
Underwater Wireless Sensor Networks (UWSNs) • 177
longer range connections (via satellite, GPRS, etc.). This type of network
should not be confused with the ones in which each node has a large power
supply and connects directly to the base station. These are isolated buoys
linked to a data collection center using satellite communications.
A-WSNs do not present the problems described previously in the case
of UW-ASNs, but they do pose other problems; for example, they have to
transmit via data cables running from underwater sensors to buoys on the sur-
face. Where these sensors are located at great depths, the problems that arise
can also be serious. In short, there is no ideal solution, and the most suitable
technology will depend on the particulars of each case.
6.2 Aerial Wireless Sensor Networks for Oceanographic

Monitoring
The various components of an A-WSN network and the resources needed to
deploy it for oceanographic monitoring are listed as follows.
Sensor Nodes
Figure 6.1 details the elements commonly used in the design and imple-
mentation of a sensor node. It is normal to include a flotation device such as a
buoy to keep part of the node out of the water. This out of the water part always
includes an antenna for RF transmission, optionally a harvesting system (solar
panel, generator, etc.) to supplement the power source, and in some cases
one or more external sensors essentially to monitor meteorological data
(wind speed, air temperature, atmospheric humidity, etc.). The submerged
part of the node is composed of one or more sensors, which may be placed
at different depths (sensor strings), a sonde to transmit the data collected
to the buoy, and finally some means of anchoring the buoy to the seabed in
order to prevent it from moving (due to marine currents, wind, waves, etc.).
The mote’s electronics include: a module for RF transmissions, a power
supply regulation and management system, a set of interfaces for access-
ing the sensors, a module for amplification, conversion (analog to digital)
and multiplexing of the data read from the sensors (surface and underwater),
a flash type permanent read/write memory, a clock to act as a timer, scien-
tific instruments (e.g., improved meteorological packages, acoustic record-
ing packages, biological samplers, etc.), and lastly a CPU (microprocessor)
to centralize the whole process and implement the user-defined monitoring
functions.
antenna
antenna mast
Surface sensors Harvesting system
RF Transceiver e.g., Solar panel
Sensor Interfaces Battery

pack
A/D Converters Power module buoy/protection
Amplifiers case platform
Multiplexers CPU Clock
Sensor Data
Interfaces Scientific Instruments Storage
sonde
mooring line
underwater
sensor / sensor
buoy weight /
strings diving unit
Anchor
FIGURE 6.1 General scheme of a sensor node for oceanographic monitoring.
A-WSN General Architecture

Figure 6.2 shows a general architecture of an A-WSN for oceanographic moni-
toring. There are two main types for inter node communication: point to
point vs. multi-hop. There are almost always one or more nodes that com-
municate directly with the base station. These act as sinks and may not have a
role in the monitoring process. The differences between deployments are
essentially determined by decisions concerning:
1. The network topology;
2. The dimensions of the area to be monitored and the number of nodes
used in the deployment;
3. The communication devices/protocols used and the radio frequencies
chosen;
4. Facilities for accessing the nodes for repair or removal (maintenance);
5. The flotation and mooring systems used;

6. The types of oceanographic sensors considered;
7. The tools for monitoring the network developed for real-time visualiza-
tion of the data gathered; and
8. The electronics used for autonomous sampling of the requisite param-
eters and for wireless transmission to a data server.
Satellite
GPRS
GPRS Network
Network
Base Station
Multi hop Internet
connection
DB
Point
Sink node to point
Sensor connection
node
FIGURE 6.2 General structure of an A-WSN for oceanographic monitoring.
The component elements of an A-WSN are generally common, irrespective

of where they are used (wireless sensor nodes, a communications protocol,
a monitoring application, etc.). But even so, there are major differences
depending on the characteristics of the deployment. One of the most obvious
differences is the type of sensors that are to be used, which will be very specific
to the environment it is proposed to monitor.
Wireless Communications
Network physical topology and density are entirely application
dependant, so before deploying an A-WSN it is necessary to understand
the environment in which it will be installed. This implies choosing the
most suitable number of nodes and their absolute position inside the area
to be monitored. Denser deployments improve data accuracy and provide
sensor networks with more energy and better connectivity. However,

at the same time a denser infrastructure can negatively affect network
performance (data collisions, interferences, etc.). Thus, network density,
physical topology, and communication type all determine the logical
choice of topology.
Every topology has its own characteristics, which determine whether or
not it is more suitable than others in terms of attributes of network func-
tionality such as fault tolerance, connectivity, and so on. This means that
depending on the whole set of requirements for network functionality,
some topologies may have to be discarded in favor of others. Of the topolo-
gies most commonly used for interconnecting nodes in a network, the logi-
cal topologies most commonly used for A-WSNs are Tree, Chain, Partially
Connected, and Star (indicated as point to point in Figure 6.2). It is impor-
tant to note that after deployment, physical topology may change due to
variations in the position, reachability (due to noise, moving obstacles, etc.),
available energy, malfunctioning, and task details of sensor nodes.
Table 6.1 Wireless Communication Technologies
Techno- Standard Description Through Range Frequency Network

logy put connectivity
Wi-Fi 802.11a System of 11/54/ <100m 5GHz Based on
802.11 wireless data 300 Mbps 2.4GHz cellular
b/g/n transmission structure
over computa- WLAN/ WiFi
tional networks
WiMAX IEEE Standard for <75 Mbps <10m 2-11GHz Point-to-

802.16 data transmis- 3.5GHz : point mobile
sion using Europe cellular
radio waves
Blue IEEE Individual v 1.2:1 Class 1: 2.4GHz Star (up to
tooth 802.15.1 specification Mbps 100m 7 nodes)
for WPAN v 2.0:3 Class2:
which enables Mbps 15–20m
voice and data UWB: Class 3:1m
transmission 53–480
between dif- Mbps
ferent devices
by means of a
secure, glob-
ally free radio
link (2.4GHz)
Techno- Standard Description Through Range Frequency Network

logy put connectivity
GSM Standard 9.6 Kpbs Dependent 900/ 1800 Point-to-
system for on cellular MHz: point mobile
communica- network Europe cellular
tion via mobile service 1900
telephones provider MHz:
incorporat- USA
ing digital
technology
GPRS GSM 56–144 Dependent 2.5 GHz Point-to-
extension for Kbps on cellular point mobile
unswitched (or network cellular
packaged) data service
transmission provider
IEEE Standard 20Kbps: <100m 868/915 Star/Mesh

802.15.4 defining the 868MHz: MHz and Peer-to-Peer
physical level Europe 2.4GHz
and control of 40Kbps:
medium access 915MHz:
of WPANs America
with low data 250 Kbps
transmission 2.4 GHz:
rates world
wide
ZigBee IEEE Specification 250 Kbps <75m 2.4GHz Star/Mesh
802.15.4 of a set of high –2.4GHz Peer-to-Peer/
level wireless world Tree
communica- wide
tion protocols
for use with
low consump-
tion digital
radios, based
on WPAN
standard
IEEE:802.15.4
For wireless communication, the sensor node incorporates a radio

module, which is chosen to suit the desired range. Sometimes, in order to
increase the range, range extenders for RF transceivers are incorporated,
thus providing amplification to improve both output power and LNA
(Low Noise Amplification). Another option, where such devices are
insufficient to cover the distance, is to include a GSM/GPRS module.
For communication between sensor nodes it is possible either to develop

communications protocols on the data linking layer using different medium
access mechanisms (such as TDMA, FDMA, and CSMA), or else to use
different wireless communication standards and technologies (Table 6.1) in
which the technology chosen will depend on the requirements of the A-WSN
it is proposed to implement, which in turn will be determined chiefly by the
amount of information that has to be sent and whether images are to be
sent in real time. Another requirement that has to be considered are the
maximum distances that a communications link will have to cover, as this will
determine the choice of RF antenna.
There are several types of antenna (omnidirectional, sector type, etc.)
which are chosen on the basis of characteristics such as the radiation dia-
gram, the bandwidth needed, directionality, gain, efficiency, beam width,
and the desired polarization. In the case of sensor nodes, communication
is more effective with omnidirectional antennas so that the radiated power is
the same in all directions. This is necessary in that the movement of the sea
can cause the sensor node to move rotationally, vertically, or horizontally, thus
altering the original position of the buoy. The drawback of this kind of antenna
is that the radiated power is more dispersed and hence the range is smaller
than with more directional antennas. Directional antennas need to be prop-
erly aligned and the power channeled in a single direction; this assures more
range in that direction and in some cases avoids interference with other
services. One important factor that must be taken into account is the height
of the antenna with respect to the flotation device supporting the node, since
over long distances, visual line of sight is not sufficient for propagation due to
attenuation and so RF line of sight is required.
Oceanographic Sensors
There are many types of sensors for monitoring oceanographic parameters
(physical, chemical, and biological). The right choice of sensor depends on
the requirements defined by the user and the requirements imposed by the
characteristics of the area where they are to be deployed. These require-
ments include the measurement range within which the parameter is to be
measured, the place where the sensor is to be deployed, sensitivity, linear-
ity, accuracy, precision, resolution, measurement rate, power consumption,
and deployment time. The parameters most commonly measured in a marine
environment and the measurement units used are shown in Table 6.2. In addi-
tion, depending on what sensor is used, it is essential to consider its position
within the node and the depth at which it will be working. For example, to
determine the temperature profile of a water column, several sensors will have
to be placed at different depths on the same vertical line.
Table 6.2 Common Oceanographic Sensors
Measured Parameter Unit

Temperature °C, °F
Pressure mmHg
Salinity (Conductivity) g/L
Water speed m/s
Turbidity FTU (Formazin Turbidity Unit)
NTU (Nephelometric Trubidity Units)
JTU (Jackson Turbidity Unit) mg/LSi02
Chlorophyll μlL
Dissolved oxygen mg/L
Nitrate mg/L
pH pKa
Swell Height: (meters) Direction: (degrees)
Blue-Green Algae Phycocyanin Relative Fluorescence Units
Ammonium/ammonia mg/l-N
Chloride mg/L
Rhodamine μlL
Hydrocarbons ppm
On the other hand, the sensor node may be equipped with surface sensors
(Table 6.3), which are normally used to determine the state of the water
surface or the atmosphere. These conditions may be important when set-
ting up a sampling strategy. For example, in the event of bad atmospheric
conditions, the sensor node may decide to raise the sampling frequency to
as sure more precise monitoring of the environment.
Hardware/Software Solutions for Node Implementation

Some sensor node implementations reuse commercial solutions (MicaZ®,
TelosB®, Mica2®, etc.) which come with an incorporated microprocessor,
and communications electronics (radio modules, antennas, etc.). These
motes normally come with a set of software development tools (operating
system, programming languages, reusable components, etc.). When the
characteristics of such commercial motes are inadequate or unsuitable,

sensor nodes are commonly developed from scratch using the electronic
components shown in Figure 6.1.
Table 6.3 Surface Sensors
Measured Parameter Unit

Air temperature °C, °F
Air pressure mb
Wind speed m/s
Wind direction degrees
Precipitation mm, inch
Atmospheric pressure mmHg
Relative humidity %RH

Solar radiation W/m2
Surface salinity Ppt
Surface conductivity S/m
The main component is a low power microprocessor, which is the core of the
platform and is responsible for managing node operation. This microproces-
sor must possess certain features if it is to be suitable for use with an A-WSN:
its architecture, combined with some low power modes, has to be optimized
to achieve extended battery life in portable measurement applications. Also,
it must include several universal serial synchronous/asynchronous commu-
nication interfaces (such as UART, I2C, SPI, etc.) so that the sensors can be
integrated with different types of electrical signals.
The lifetime of the network depends on the autonomy of the sensor
nodes. Power is normally supplied by batteries (commonly D cell, Lithium
ion, AA, or AAA batteries), which may be supplemented by harvesting
systems (solar panels, generators, etc.) to prolong the useful life of the
sensor node. It is sometimes necessary to adapt the voltage between the
node’s power supply and the rest of the components by means of DC/DC
converters. Inclusion of a flash read/write permanent memory (SD, MMC,
etc.) enhances the robustness of the mote by allowing data to be stored

and transmitted later on when conditions permit, thus avoiding loss of
information. Another important component is a low consumption clock
operating in real time. With a clock synchronized with all the other motes, when
a reading is taken from a sensor it can be stored along with the exact time of
the reading. Later on, the information can be relayed to the data server, which
is important when it comes to analyzing the resulting data.
Monitoring Application
The information gathered by the sensor nodes has to be transmitted to a
base station or monitoring station or PC or Laptop with a massive data stor-
age system (relational databases are the commonest solution such as SQL,
etc.) which can also be used for the necessary studies using the existing
oceanographic theoretical models. Having integrated monitoring tools makes
it possible to maintain permanent communication with the sensor network
deployed and access to the stored data via the Internet. The information dis-
played by these tools usually consists of the number of nodes deployed, the
parameters analyzed, the geographical location of each node, the most recent
data gathered by the sensor nodes, and visualization of a data historical table.
The number of buoy implementations on the basis of the location of their
components (electronics, radio, batteries, sensors) and mooring system are
(E) (B) (E) (R)

(S) (S) (B) (S)
(R) (R) (S) (R)
anchor
chain Steel axis
sub-
buoy weight surface
float sensor
(E) string counter weight
(B) sensor
string mooring line
anchor (E) (B)
(E) Electronics housing (B) Batteries housing (R) Radio (S) Sensors
(a) static buoy with (b) static buoy with (c) static (d) non static buoy
mooring line mooring line buoy (Lagrangian buoys)
and floating house and bottom housing
FIGURE 6.3 Most representative configurations of buoys used in A-WSNs.
6.3 Underwater Acoustic Sensor Networks (UW-ASNs)

UW-ASNs consist of underwater sensor nodes and autonomous underwater
vehicles, which are deployed to carry out cooperative surveillance in a
given area as shown in Figure 6.4. The typical physical layer technology in
underwater networks involves acoustic communication. The architectures
of underwater acoustic sensor networks can be categorized depending
on the network topology used. Thus, network topology is considered as a
crucial factor in terms of the capacity of the network, as well as the energy
consumption requirements.
Satellite User
Mobile cellular
network
GSM or GPRS
Internet
Aerial WSNs
Communication Base Station
Mobile hop
Underwater Point-to-point Communication
Communication Communication
Acoustically connected
sensors
FIGURE 6.4 General architecture of UW-ASNs.
a) Static Underwater Sensor Networks

In this type of network, a group of sensor nodes are anchored to the bottom
of the water area with a deep water anchor. In order to send the data to
the surface station, wireless acoustic link interconnections are used between
underwater sensor nodes and underwater sinks via direct links or through
multi-hop pathways.
b) Moving Underwater Sensor Networks
Underwater sensor nodes are attached to a surface buoy or anchor to the
bottom of the water area, with flexibility of movement in a specific area.
c) Underwater Sensor Networks with Autonomous Underwater Vehicles

Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) are used to enhance the
capabilities of underwater sensor networks in terms of self configuration
of sensor nodes (e.g. maintenance of underwater network infrastructure),
adaptive sampling, power supply issues, and depth capability, which can
reach up to 1500m. Furthermore, global position satellite (GPS) technology
can be used to track the location of the vehicles on or near the surface.
6.4 Underwater Wireless Sensor Networks (UWSNs)

A scalable UWSN provides a promising solution for efficiently exploring and
observing aqueous environments and operates under the following constraints:
1. Unmanned Underwater Exploration

Underwater conditions are not suitable for human exploration. High water
pressure, unpredictable underwater activities, and a vast size of water area
are major reasons for unmanned exploration.
2. Localized and Precise Knowledge Acquisition

Localized exploration is more precise and useful than remote exploration
because underwater environmental conditions are typically localized at each
venue and variable in time. Using long-range SONAR or other remote sens-
ing technology may not acquire adequate knowledge about physical events
happening in the volatile underwater environment.
3. Tetherless Underwater Networking

The Internet is expanding to outer space and underwater. The current
tethered technology allows constrained communication between an
underwater venue and the ground infrastructure, and it incurs significant
cost of deployment, maintenance, and device recovery to cope with volatile
undersea conditions.
4. Large Scale Underwater Monitoring

Traditional underwater exploration relies on either a single high cost under-
water device or a small scale underwater network. Neither existing tech-
nology is suitable to applications covering a large area. Enabling a scalable
underwater sensor network technology is essential for exploring a huge
underwater space.
Underwater sensor networks have many potential applications. The seis-

mic imaging of undersea oilfields are a representative application. Today,
most seismic imaging tasks for offshore oilfields are carried out by a ship that
tows a large array of hydrophones on the surface. The cost of such technol-
ogy is very high, and the seismic survey can only be carried out rarely, for
example, once every 2–3 years. In comparison, sensor network nodes have
very low cost, and can be permanently deployed on the sea floor. Such a system
enables frequent seismic imaging of a reservoir (perhaps every few months),
and helps to improve resource recovery and oil productivity. The following
Figure 6.5 shows the schematic diagram of UWSNs.
Optical cabe line
Wireless Acoustic
Communication
Unnamed
Vehicle Sensor
Node
FIGURE 6.5 Schematic of Underwater Wireless Sensor Networks.
Some of the challenges are different. First, radio is not suitable for
underwater usage because of extremely limited propagation (current
mote radios transmit 50–100 cm). While acoustic telemetry is a promis-
ing form of underwater communication, off the shelf acoustic modems
are not suitable for underwater sensor nets with hundreds of nodes: their
power draws, ranges, and price points are all designed for sparse, long
range, expensive systems rather than small, dense, and cheap sensor nets.
Second, the shift from RF to acoustics changes the physics of communica-
tion from the speed of light (3 × 108 m/s) to the speed of sound (around
1.5 × l03 m/s), a difference of five orders of magnitude. While propaga-
tion delay is negligible for short-range RF, it is a central fact of under-
water wireless. This has profound implications on localization and time
synchronization. Finally, energy conservation of underwater sensor nets
will be different than on the ground because the sensors will be larger,
and because some important applications require large amounts of data,
but very infrequently (once per week or less).
In a UWSN, the sensor mobility can bring two major benefits:

1. Mobile sensors injected in the current in relative large numbers can
help to track changes in the water mass, thus providing 4D (space and
time) environmental sampling. 4D sampling is required by many aquatic
systems studies, such as estuary monitoring; the alternative is to drag
the sensors on boats and or on wires and carry out a large number of
repeated experiments. This latter approach would take much more time
and possibly cost. The multitude of sensors helps to provide extra con-
trol on redundancy and granularity.
2. Floating sensors can help to form dynamic monitoring coverage and
increase system reusability. In fact, through a “bladder” apparatus one
can dynamically control the depth of the sensor deployment, and force
resurfacing and recovery when the battery is low or the mission is over.
In traditional aquatic monitoring or surveillance applications, sensors are
usually fixed to the sea floor or attached to pillars or surface buoys,
and sensors with computational power are usually of big size. Thus, the
sensor replacement and recovery cost is very high, as also results in low
system reusability.
System Architecture of UWSNs

Figure 6.6 shows the general architecture for an underwater sensor network.
Platform
Supernode Buoy
Robot
Sensors
Sensors
FIGURE 6.6 Underwater network deployment.
In Figure 6.6, four different types of nodes are shown in the system. At the
lowest layer, the large number of sensor nodes are deployed on the sea floor.
They collect data through attached sensors (e.g., seismic) and communicate
with other nodes through short-range acoustic modems. They operate on
batteries, and to operate for long periods they spend most of their life asleep.
Several deployment strategies of these nodes are possible; they are anchored
to the sea floor or buried for protection. Tethers ensure that nodes are
positioned roughly where expected and allow optimization of placement for
good sensor and communications coverage. Node movement is still possible
due to anchor drift or disturbance from external effects. Nodes are able to
determine their locations through distributed localization algorithms. At the
top layer are one or more control nodes with connections to the Internet.
The node shown on the platform in Figure 6.6 is this kind of node. These
control nodes may be positioned on an off-shore platform with power, or they
may be on shore; these nodes are to have a large storage capacity to buffer
data, and access to sufficient electrical power.
Control nodes will communicate with sensor nodes directly, by
connecting to an underwater acoustic modem with wires. In large networks,
a third type of nodes, called super nodes, can be deployed. Super nodes have
access to high speed networks, and can relay data to the base station very
efficiently. There are two possible implementations: the first involves attaching
regular nodes to tethered buoys that are equipped with high-speed radio
communications to the base station, as shown in Figure 6.6. An alternative
implementation would place these nodes on the sea floor and connect
them to the base station with fiber optic cables. Super nodes allow a much
richer network connectivity, creating multiple data collection points for the
underwater acoustic network. Finally, robotic submersibles are interacting
with the system via acoustic communications. In Figure 6.6, “fishes”
represent multiple robots. CPU capability at a node varies greatly in sensor
networks, from 8-bit embedded processors, to 32-bit embedded processors
about as powerful as typical PDAs, such as Intel Stargate, to 32-bit or 64-bit
laptop computers. The Stargate class computers may be used for underwater
sensor networks. Their memory capacities (64MB RAM, 32MB flash storage)
and computing power (a 400MHz XScale processor) are sufficient to store and
process a significant amount of data temporarily, while their cost is moderate.
In a harsh underwater environment, some nodes will be lost over time.
Possible risks include fishing trawlers, underwater life, or failure of water-
proofing. Therefore, one should expect basic deployments to include some
redundancy, so that loss of an individual node will not have wider effects. In
addition, one will be able to recover from multiple failures, either with mobile
nodes, or with deployment of replacements. Operating on battery power, sen-
sor nodes must carefully monitor their energy consumption. It is essential
that all components of the system operate at as low a duty cycle as possible.
In addition, it is necessary to coordinate with the application to entirely shut

off the node for very long periods of time, up to days or months, and build on
techniques for long duration sleep. Networking protocols that allow under-
water nodes to self configure and coordinate with each other are time syn-
chronization, localization, MAC, and routing. First, applications benefit from
local processing and temporary data storage. Storage can be used to buffer
data to manage low speed communications, “time-shifting” data collection
from retrieval. In some cases, nodes benefit from pair-wise communications
and computation. Finally, in most sensing applications, the data is to be even-
tually relayed to the user through the Internet or a dedicated network.
Applications of UWSNs
The application of wireless sensor networks to the underwater domain has
huge potential for monitoring the health of river and marine environments.
Monitoring these environments is difficult and costly for humans: divers
are regulated in the hours and depths at which they can work, and require a
boat on the surface that is costly to operate and subject to weather conditions.
Figure 6.7 shows anti-submarine warfare, a branch of naval warfare that
uses surface warships, aircraft, or other submarines to find, track, and deter,
damage, or destroy enemy submarines.
Tactical Information SATCOM

Network Data Link
Deployment
and Attack
DD RF
Data Link
AUV Acoustic
Gateway Modem
Master
Node
Barrier System
Sensor Nodes
Deployment
and Attack
Field System Acoustic Source
FIGURE 6.7 Anti-submarine warfare.

A sensor network deployed underwater could monitor physical variables

such as water temperature and pressure as well as variables such as
conductivity, turbidity, and certain pollutants. The network could track
plumes of silt due to dredging operations or pollutants flowing in from
land, and it could monitor and model the behavior of underwater
ecosystems. Imaging sensors could be used to measure visible change
in the environment or count, and perhaps even classify species, and is
also useful for disaster prevention. The applications of underwater sensor
networks are classified as follows.
1. Ocean Sampling
Networks of sensors and AUVs can perform synoptic, cooperative adaptive
sampling of the 3D coastal ocean environment and advanced ocean models
to improve the ability to observe and predict the characteristics of the
oceanic environment.
2. Environmental Monitoring
UW-ASNs can perform pollution monitoring (chemical, biological, and
nuclear). For example, it may be possible to detail the chemical slurry of
antibiotics, estrogen-type hormones, and insecticides to monitor streams,
rivers, lakes, and ocean bays (water quality analysis). Monitoring of
ocean currents and winds, improved weather forecast, detecting climate
change, understanding and predicting the effect of human activities on
marine ecosystems, and biological monitoring such as tracking of fishes or
microorganisms are other possible applications. An example is the design
and construction of a simple underwater sensor network to detect extreme
temperature gradients, which are considered to be a breeding ground for
certain marine microorganisms.
3. Undersea Explorations
Underwater sensor networks can help detect underwater oilfields or reser-
voirs, determine routes for laying undersea cables, and assist in exploration
for valuable minerals.
4. Disaster Prevention
Sensor networks that measure seismic activity from remote locations can
provide tsunami warnings to coastal areas, or study the effects of submarine
earthquakes (seaquakes).
5. Assisted Navigation
Sensors can be used to identify hazards on the seabed, locate dangerous rocks
or shoals in shallow waters, mooring positions, submerged wrecks, and
perform bathymetry profiling.
6. Distributed Tactical Surveillance
Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUV) and fixed underwater sensors can
collaboratively monitor areas for surveillance, reconnaissance, targeting,
and intrusion detection systems. For example, a 3D underwater sensor net-
work is designed for a tactical surveillance system that is able to detect and
classify submarines, small delivery vehicles (SDVs), and divers based on
the sensed data from mechanical, radiation, magnetic, and acoustic micro-
sensors. With respect to traditional radar/sonar systems, underwater sensor
networks can reach a higher accuracy and enable detection and classifica-
tion of low signature targets by also combining measures from different
types of sensors.
7. Mine Reconnaissance
Simultaneous operation of multiple AUVs with acoustic and optical sensors
can be used to perform rapid environmental assessment and detect mine
like objects.
8. Flocks of Underwater Robots
A very different application is supporting groups of underwater autono-
mous robots. Applications include coordinating adaptive sensing of chemi-
cal leaks or biological phenomena (for example, oil leaks or phytoplankton
concentrations), and also equipment monitoring applications.
9. Oceanography
Oceanography is the study of processes that govern the complex interplay
of tides, currents, waves, and seabed and coastal modeling. Oceanography
can tell us about coastal deposition and erosion and consequently about
flooding and sea defenses. Sensor networks offer a new paradigm for ocean-
ography, and many other scientific, commercial, agricultural, and industrial
applications.
Marine Sensor Package Design

The sensor package was designed as a waterproof cylinder (approx. 50 cm
long) containing a sensor section, a data logger, and a microprocessor (PIC)
running the lightweight device control algorithm, designed to control the

measurement rates, data processing, queue management, data aggregation,
and data forwarding, together with two alkaline D cells. The sensor package
is designed to last several months using these batteries. Attached to this
cylinder is a “dongle” which is able to move in the current, and thus provide
current velocities. It includes a sensor section with which wave height can
be derived, an optical backscatter sensor that measures turbidity, and an
electrical conductivity sensor, which is used as a surrogate for salinity. The
sensor package as shown in Figure 6.8 is suspended within a pyramidal-
shaped cage, designed to remain fixed on the seabed, thereby giving a
consistent reference orientation for current velocities and clearance above
the sea bed for the optical sensor.
Communication Buoy
Galvanized central tube

and cross bars
Steel wire
Rope with loose
section cable Rope section
(8 meters) (8 meters)
Chain Chain
Weight section section Weight
30kg (8 meters) (8 meters) 30kg
Sensor Package
FIGURE 6.8 Sensor node mechanical design.
Sensors transmit the collected data from different forms of natural and
human made phenomena such as sound, light, temperature, salinity, and
pollution in water areas to a server “sink/gateway” and subsequently to the
end user. Sensor nodes are interconnected by point to point and multi-hop
communication networks. Wireless sensor network infrastructure requires
standards and protocols (zigbee, IEEE 802.15.4, etc.) which take into
account the battery life of the node and node cost in addition to the operating
environment.
Security Issues in UWSNs

Security is considered as a central issue in WSNs, providing confidentiality,
authentication, and the integrity of sensor data transmission. In order to
achieve secure data transmission between nodes, complex cryptographic

algorithms are required. However, the capabilities and constraints of UWSNs
dictate the security services that are needed and the mechanisms that can be
used. In particular, with communication between a large number of sensor
nodes, power consumption, capability of key storage, and computation of
new security keys must be considered.
The services include: confidentiality, authentication, integrity of data,
and node/data availability. The WSN world in particular offers many
obstructions/difficulties in providing these services. These difficulties are
discussed as follows:
1. Confidentiality
Sensor nodes may be attacked in order to reveal the sensor data. Encrypted
information with a secret key will maintain data confidentiality. This data
should only be exposed to permissible users, who can decrypt the data with
the correct key.
2. Authentication
Data transmission between nodes must be trusted. As such the receiver
must ensure that any data received is authenticated. This can be provided
using resource friendly tools such as hardware-implemented hashing
algorithms.
3. Integrity
The same hashing algorithms that can be used to provide source authen-
tication are used to provide data integrity. Hardware implementations of
these algorithms can limit their draw on system resources such as power
and memory.
4. Availability
Nodes in the network may suffer from Denial of Service (DoS) attacks.
Network systems can protect the availability of nodes by enabling them to
be self organizing and through the use of suitable rekeying algorithms. This
rekeying will enable the network to be self healing while keeping security
of data at the fore.
Key Managementin UWSNs
To ensure the security of any application in UWSNs, key management
mechanisms are a most critical operation. These include generating,
distributing, and revoking cryptographic keys. In UWSNs, there are two

kinds of keying schemes generally used: network-wide and node-specific
pre-deployed keying. The former supplies the same system-wide master
key to each sensor node for the entire network, whereas the latter equips
each neighboring node with a unique key to allow communication pairing
between neighbor nodes to take place.
1. Key Pre-distribution
Keys are generated and then installed in the memory of each sensor node,
which creates a key ring. Furthermore, the key ring identifiers of each sen-
sor node and its associated key ring are kept in a controller node in the
network. This phase must be completed before deploying the sensornodes.
2. Discovery of the Common S hared Key
In this step, nodes broadcast their identifier key ring in order to discover
a pair-wise key. At this point in the operation, the topology of the network
is established by the communication links between the nodes that share a
common key.
3. Establishment of Path Keys
In some cases if the node does not discover a shared key with other nodes,
and they are connected by a multi-hop path, then it is possible for a path
key to be established between the nodes. This key is known as an end-to-
end path key.
4. Revocation of Stray Sensor Nodes
During the operation of UWSNs, some nodes may not function as expected
due to reasons such as a compromised sensor nodes, or power becoming
exhausted. As a result of this, these nodes must be isolated. Revoking the
entire key ring of these nodes from the network will remove particular
communication links in the network. Revocation messages consist of a set
of key identifiers of revoked nodes which are broadcast by controller nodes.
5. Rekeying
This phase occurs after isolating deviant nodes. The rekeying step must
take place in sensor nodes in order to generate and replace the expired key
rings after employing the revocation algorithm.
The UWSNs which can be subjected to many kinds of node/data
attacks are dependent on many factors, such as: environmental and water
conditions, energy constrained operation requirements, suitable network

communication and software design/topologies, and finally security.
A UWSN architecture can be classified into two classes based on
the required coverage area: small coverage area and wide coverage area.
Personal area networks (PAN) connect sensor nodes in a wireless commu-
nication range up to 10m in the 2.4GHz ISM band. For instance, IEEE
802.15.4 or Bluetooth can be used to connect several wireless sensors
inside a circle with a radius of ten meters, with low power consumption and
a data rate up to 480 Mbps. Wireless Local Area Networks (WLAN) have a
communication range of 250 meters, in some cases up to 600 Mbps. On the
other hand, point-to-point mobile cellular networks used in UWSNs offer
ranges up to 50km such as with IEEE802.15.1 or GPS/GRPS.
Second, a particularly important factor in the deployment of UWSNs is
how to overcome security attacks with dynamically changing network topol-
ogy. These attacks can consist of node impersonation, denial of service, and
data disclosure attacks. Hence, applying different kinds of security mech-
anisms and management techniques is particularly important in order to
prevent and detect attacking attempts and to ensure integrity, confidential-
ity, and authentication of transmitted data. To facilitate this, key manage-
ment and encryption schemes are at the core of security communication
requirements. Dynamic key management schemes are finding considerable
use in UWSNs, where they are capable of adding new nodes and ejecting
compromised nodes. In some approaches, to ensure the security of the net-
work, sensor nodes share a single symmetric key, known as a network-wide
master key, which is used to facilitate rekeying of a network with session
keys used for encrypting and decrypting messages. These session keys can
be updated and redistributed when the sensor nodes change, drop out of
the network, or are attacked (rekeying).
Another approach is neighborhood key management. In this approach,
each sensor node only keeps and shares a symmetric key with its closest
nodes (neighbors). The sender encrypts the message key with the neighbor-
hood key and attaches the encrypted key (like a single session key) to the
message. Thus, in order to forward the message, the node must re-encrypt
the message key. When the node needs to send data to another node for the
first time, the received node demands a certificate from the sender, which
identifies it as a legitimate node. Once the receiver ensures the authen-
tication of the sender by exchanging certificates, the secret keys can be
exchanged to use for encrypting and signing messages.
6.5 Challenges In Network Protocol

The design challenges along the network protocol stack in a top-down
manner are given as follows. At each layer, there are many critical problems
awaiting the solutions.
1. Security, Resilience, and Robustness

A self-organizing sensor network needs more protections than cryptography
due to the limited energy, computation, and communication capabilities of
sensor nodes. A critical security issue is to defend against denial-of-service
attacks, which could be in the form of depleting nodes on device resources
(especially draining batteries by incurring extra computation and commu-
nication) and disrupting network collaboration (e.g., routing, data aggrega-
tion, localization, clock synchronization). Such attacks can disrupt or even
disable sensor networks independent of cryptographic protections.
In a UWSNs, due to the unique characteristics of underwater acous-
tic channels, denial-of-service attacks are lethal. In particular, a wormhole
attack (in which an attacker records a packet at one location in the network,
tunnels the data to another location, and replays the packet there) and its
variants impose a great threat to underwater acoustic communications.
Many countermeasures that have been proposed to stop wormhole attacks
in radio networks are ineffectual in UWSNs. Thus, to protect against worm-
hole attacks in UWSNs, new techniques are demanded.
Another problem that may arise in UWSNs is intermittent partitioning
due to water turbulence, currents, ships, and so forth. In fact, there may
be situations where no connected path exists at any given time between
source and destination. This intermittent partitioning situation may be
detected through routing and by traffic observations. Disruption Tolerant
Networking (DTN) includes the use of intermediate stores and forward
proxies. If the data sink (i.e., the command center) suspects the presence of
such conditions, it can then take advantage of some of the DTN techniques
to reach the data sources.
2. Reliable and/or Real Time Data Transfer

Reliable data transfer is of critical importance. There are typically two
approaches for reliable data transfer: end-to-end or hop-by-hop. The
most common solution at the transport layer is TCP (Transmission
Control Protocol), which is an end-to-end approach. TCP performance is
problematic because of the high error rates incurred on the links, which
were already encountered in wireless radio networks.
Another type of approach for reliable data transfer is hop-by-hop. The
hop-to-hop approach is favored in wireless and error-prone networks, and
is believe to be more suitable for sensor networks. PSFQ (Pump Slowly
and Fetch Quickly) employs the hop-by-hop approach. In this protocol, a
sender sends a data packet to its immediate neighbors at a very slow rate.
When the receiver detects some packet losses, it has to fetch the lost pack-
ets quickly. Hop-by-hop, data packets are finally delivered to the data sink
reliably. In PSPQ, ARQ (Automatic Repeat Request) is used for per-hop
communication. However, due to the long propagation delay of acoustic
signals, in UWSNs, ARQ would cause very low channel utilization. One
possible solution to solve the problem is to investigate erasure coding
schemes, which, though introducing additional overhead, can effectively
avoid retransmission delay. The challenge is to design a tailored, efficient
coding scheme for UWSNs. In UWSNs, due to the high error probability
of acoustic channels, efficient erasure coding schemes could be utilized to
help achieve high reliability and at the same time reduce data transfer time
by suppressing retransmission.
3. Traffic Congestion Control

Congestion control is an important while tough issue to study in many types
of networks. In UWSNs, high acoustic propagation delay makes congestion
control even more difficult. In ground-based sensor networks, the congestion
control problem is thoroughly investigated in CODA (Congestion Detection
and Avoidance). In CODA, there are two mechanisms for congestion con-
trol and avoidance: open loop hop-by-hop backpressure and closed loop
multisource regulation. In the open loop hop-by-hop backpressure mode,
a node broadcasts a backpressure message as soon as it detects congestion.
For UWSNs, a combination of open and closed loops may apply,
since it provides a good compromise between fast reaction (with open)
and efficient steady-state regulation (with closed). Considering the poor
quality of acoustic channels, one aspect that deserves further investigation
is the distinction between loss due to congestion and loss due to external
interference. From received packet inter-arrival statistics and from other
local measurement, the data sink may be able to infer random loss versus
congestion and maintain the rate (and possibly strengthen the channel
coding) if loss is not congestion related.
4. Efficient Multi-Hop Acoustic Routing

Like in ground-based sensor networks, saving energy is a major concern
in UWSNs (especially for the long-term aquatic monitoring applications).
Another challenge for data forwarding in UWSNs is to handle node mobil-
ity. This requirement makes most existing energy-efficient data-forwarding
protocols unsuitable for UWSNs. There are many routing protocols pro-
posed for ground-based sensor networks.
They are mainly designed for stationary networks and usually employ
query flooding as a powerful method to discover data delivery paths. In
UWSNs, however, most sensor nodes are mobile, and the “network topol-
ogy” changes dramatically even with small displacements. Thus, the existing
routing algorithms using query flooding designed for ground-based sensor
networks are no longer feasible in UWSNs.
With no proactive neighbor detection and with less flooding, it is a big
challenge to furnish multi-hop packet delivery service in UWSNs with the
node mobility requirement. One possible direction is to utilize location
information to do geo-routing, which proves to be very effective in handling
mobility. However, how to make geo-routing energy efficient in UWSNs is
yet to be answered.
5. Distributed Localization and Time Synchronization
In aquatic applications, it is critical for every underwater node to know its
current position and the synchronized time with respect to other coordi-
nating nodes. Due to quick absorption of high frequency radio waves, a
Global Positioning System (GPS) does not work well under the water. A
low-cost positioning and time-synchronization system with high precision
like GPS for ground-based sensor nodes is not yet available to underwater
sensor nodes. Thus, it is expected that UWSNs must rely on a distributed
GPS-free localization or time synchronization scheme, which is referred to
as cooperative localization or time synchronization. To realize this type of
approach in a network with node mobility, the key problem is the range and
direction measurement process.
Promising approaches may include acoustic only Time-of-Arrival
(ToA) approaches (e.g., measuring round trip time by actively bouncing
the acoustic signal) as well as deploying many surface-level radio anchor
points (via GPS for instant position and time-synchronization information).
Moreover, the underwater environment with motion of water and variation
in temperature and pressure also affect the speed of the acoustic signal.
Sophisticated signal processing will be needed to compensate for these
sources of errors due to the water medium itself.
6. Efficient Multiple Access

The characteristics of the underwater acoustic channel, especially limited
bandwidth and high propagation delays, pose unique challenges for media
access control (MAC) that enables multiple devices to share a common
wireless medium in an efficient and fair way. It has been observed that
contention-based protocols that rely on carrier sensing and handshaking
are not appropriate in underwater communications. One possible direction
is to explore ALOHA/slotted ALOHA in UWSNs since satellite networks,
which share the feature of long propagation delay, employ these random
access approaches. On the other hand, FDMA is not suitable due to the
narrow bandwidth of the underwater acoustic channel, and TDMA is not
efficient due to the excessive propagation delay.
As a result, CDMA has been highlighted as a promising multiple access
technique for underwater acoustic networks. If multiple antenna elements
are deployed at certain relay or access points, then spatial division multiple
access (SDMA) is a viable choice. Like in CDMA, users can transmit simul-
taneously over the entire frequency band. With different spatial signature
sequences, users are separated at the receiver through interference can-
cellation techniques. SDMA and CDMA can be further combined, where
each user is assigned a signature matrix that spreads over both space and
time, extending the concept of temporal or spatial spreading.
7. Acoustic Physical Layer
Compared with the counterpart on radio channels, communications over
underwater acoustic channels are severely rate limited and performance
limited. That is due to the inherent bandwidth limitation of acoustic links,
the large delay spread, and the high time variability due to slow sound prop-
agation in an underwater environment. As a result, unlike the rapid growth
of wireless networks over radio channels, the last two decades have only
witnessed two fundamental advances in underwater acoustic communica-
tions. One is the introduction of digital communication techniques (non-
coherent frequency shift keying (FSK)) in the early 1980s, and the other is
the application of coherent modulations, including phase shift keying (PSK)
and quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) in the early 1990s.
6.6 Distinctions Between UWSNS And Ground-Based Sensor

Networks
A UWSN is significantly different from any ground-based sensor network in
terms of the following aspects:
1. Communication Method
Electromagnetic waves cannot propagate over a long distance in underwa-
ter environments. Therefore, underwater sensor networks have to rely on
other physical means, such as acoustic sounds, to transmit signals. Unlike
wireless links among ground-based sensors, each underwater wireless link
features large latency and low bandwidth. Due to such distinct network
dynamics, communication protocols used in ground-based sensor net-
works may not be suitable in underwater sensor networks. Specially, low
bandwidth and large latency usually result in long end-to-end delay, which
brings big challenges in reliable data transfer and traffic congestion con-
trol. The large latency also significantly affects multiple access protocols.
Traditional random access approaches in RF wireless networks might not
work efficiently in underwater scenarios.
2. Node Mobility
Most sensor nodes in ground-based sensor networks are typically static,
though it is possible to implement interactions between these static sensor
nodes and a limited amount of mobile nodes (e.g., mobile data collecting
entities like “mules,” which may or may not be sensor nodes). In contrast,
the majority of underwater sensor nodes, except some fixed nodes equipped
on surface-level buoys, are with low or medium mobility due to water cur-
rent and other underwater activities. From empirical observations, under-
water objects may move at the speed of 23 knots (or 3-6 kilometers per
hour) in a typical underwater condition.
6.7 Networking Architectures for UWSNs

In general, depending on the permanent vs. on-demand placement of the
sensors, the time constraints imposed by the applications, and the volume
of data being retrieved, the aquatic application scenarios could roughly be
classified into two broad categories:
1. long-term non-time-critical aquatic monitoring
2. short-term time-critical aquatic exploration
Applications that fall in the first category include oceanography, marine

biology, pollution detection, and oil/gas field monitoring, to name a few.
The examples for the second category are underwater natural resource
discovery, hurricane disaster recovery, antisubmarine military missions, lost
treasure discovery, and so on.
UWSNs for Long-Term Non-Time-Critical Aquatic Monitoring

Figure 6.9 illustrates the mobile UWSN architecture for long-term non-
time-critical aquatic monitoring applications. In this type of network,
sensor nodes are densely deployed to cover a spacial continuous monitoring
area. Data are collected by local sensors, related by intermediate sensors,
and finally reach the surface nodes (equipped with both acoustic and RF
(Radio Frequency) modems), which can transmit data to the on-shore
command center by radio. Since this type of network is designed for long-
term monitoring tasks, energy saving is a central issue to consider in the
design. Among the four types of sensor activities (sensing, transmitting,
receiving, and computing), transmitting is the most expensive in terms of
energy consumption.
Distributed underwater sensor nodes

Surface level gateway nodes
communicating with the onshore
command center through radio
Data path
Water surface
FIGURE 6.9 The UWSN architecture for long-term non-time-critical aquatic monitoring
applications.
In Micro-Modems, the transmit power is 10 Watts, and the receive power is

80 milli watts. Note that the Micro-Modem is designed for medium range
(1 to 10 km) acoustic communications. Efficient techniques for multiaccess
and data forwarding play a significant role in reducing energy consump-
tion. Moreover, depending on the data sampling frequency, one may need
mechanisms to dynamically control the mode of sensors (switching between

sleeping mode, wake-up mode, and working mode). In this way, one may
save more energy. Further, when sensors are running out of batteries, they
should be able to pop up to the water surface for recharge, for which a sim-
ple air-bladder-like device would suffice. Clearly, in the UWSNs for long-
term aquatic monitoring, localization is a must-do task to locate mobile
sensors, since usually only location-aware data is useful in aquatic monitor-
ing. In addition, the sensor location information can be utilized to assist
data forwarding, since geo-routing proves to be more efficient than pure
flooding. Self-relocation obviously needs some buoyancy control, which is
very energy consuming. Thus, a UWSN system design has to deal with the
tradeoff between energy efficiency and self-reorganizability.
UWSNs for Short-Term Time-Critical Aquatic Exploration

In Figure 6.10, a civilian scenario of the UWSN architecture for short-
term time-critical aquatic exploration applications is shown. Assume a
ship wreckage and accident investigation team wants to identify the target
venue. Existing approaches usually employ tethered wire/cable to remotely
operated vehicles (ROV). When the cable is damaged, the ROV is out of
control or not recoverable. In contrast, by deploying a underwater wireless
sensor network, as shown in Figure 6.10, the investigation team can control
the ROV remotely.
Control Center
sea surface
distributed underwater sensor

multi-hop acoustic route
ROV
wreckage
FIGURE 6.10 An illustration of the mobile UWSN architecture for short-term time-critical
aquatic exploration applications.
The self-reconfigurable underwater sensor network tolerates more faults

than the existing tethered solution. After investigation, the underwater
sensors can be recovered by issuing a command to trigger air-bladder devices.

In military context, submarine detection is an example of the target short-
term time-critical aquatic exploration applications. In the face of state-of-
the-art stealth technologies, the acoustic signature of a modern submarine
can only be identified within a very short range. Compared to remote sens-
ing technology that has limited accuracy and robustness, the self-configured
sensor mesh can identify the enemy’s submarine with very high probability
since every individual sensor is capable of submarine detection, and more-
over, the detection can be reinforced by multiple observations. Figure 6.10
is used to depict this application scenario, with the ROV replaced with the
enemy’s stealth submarine. The self-reconfigurable wireless sensor network
detects the enemy’s submarine and notifies the control center via multi-hop
acoustic routes. This type of aquatic application demands data rates ranging
from very small (e.g., send an alarm that a submarine was detected) to rela-
tively high (e.g., send images, or even live video of the submarine). As it is
limited by acoustic physics and coding technology, high data rate network-
ing can only be realized in high frequency acoustic bands in underwater
communication. It was demonstrated by empirical implementations that
the link bandwidth can reach up to 0.5 Mbps at the distance of 60 meters.
Such a high data rate is suitable to deliver even multimedia data. Compared
with the first type of UWSN for long-term non-time-critical aquatic moni-
toring, the UWSN for short-term time-critical aquatic exploration presents
the following differences in the protocol design.
• Real-time data transfer is more of concern.
• Energy saving becomes a secondary issue.
• Localization is not a must-do task.
However, reliable, resilient, and secure data transfer is always a desired
advanced feature for both types of UWSNs.
6.8 Water Quality Monitoring

Water is a limited resource and essential for agriculture, industry, and the
existence of creatures on earth, including human beings. Water quality
monitoring is essential to control physical, chemical, and biological
characteristics of water. For example, drinking water should not contain any
chemical materials that could be harmful to health; water for agricultural
irrigation should have low sodium content; and water for industrial uses
should be low in certain inorganic chemicals. In addition, water quality

monitoring can help with water pollution detection and discharge of toxic
chemicals and contamination in water. In most of the river/lake water
quality monitoring systems, the following parameters are monitored:
1. Potential of Hydrogen (pH)
pH is a measurement of the concentration of hydrogen ions in the water. A
pH sensor measures how acidic or basic the water is, which can directly affect
the survival of aquatic organisms. The pH range is from 0 (very acidic) to 14
(very basic), with 7 being neutral. Most water’s pH range is from 5.5 to 8.5.
Changes in pH can affect how chemicals dissolve in the water. High acidity
(such as a pH of less than 4) can be deadly to fish and other aquatic organisms.
2. Dissolved Oxygen (DO)
Dissolved oxygen is the amount of oxygen dissolved in water, measured in
milligrams per liter (mg/L). DO measurement tells how much oxygen is
available in the water for fish and other aquatic organisms to breathe. The
ability of water to hold oxygen in a solution is inversely proportional to the
temperature of the water. For example, the cooler the water temperature,
the more dissolved oxygen it can hold.
3. Temperature
Temperature measures the warmth or coldness of the water. Temperature
is a critical water quality parameter since it directly influences the amount
of dissolved oxygen that is available to aquatic organisms. Temperature
measurement can also determine the kinds of aquatic organisms that can
survive in the water.
4. Conductivity/TDS
Conductivity is the ability of the water to conduct an electrical current, and
is an indirect measure of the ion concentration. The more ions are present,
the more electricity can be conducted by the water. This measurement is
expressed in microsiemens per centimeter (uS/cm). The amount of mineral
and salt impurities in the water is called total dissolved solids (TDS). TDS
is measured in parts per million. TDS tells how many units of impurities
there are for one million units of water. For example, drinking water should
be less than 500 ppm, water for agriculture should be less than 1200 ppm.
5. Turbidity
Turbidity is a measure of the clarity of the water. This measurement
determines how many particulates are floating around in the water, such
as plant debris, sand, silt, and clay, which affect the amount of sunlight
reaching aquatic plants. Excess turbidity can reduce reproduction rates of
aquatic life when spawning areas and eggs are covered with soil. Turbidity
is measured in Nephelometric Turbidity Units (NTU).
A large number of sensor nodes can be deployed to cover a large water
monitoring area with enough density. As Figure 6.11 shows, the sensor
network consists of one super node and a number of small sensor nodes. Each
small sensor node has a low capacity solar panel and two low cost sensors (one
temperature sensor and one dissolved oxygen sensor) connected and uses a
low power Zigbee radio for data transmission. The super node has a high
capacity solar panel and five sensors connected and uses a powerful long-
distance 802.11 Ethernet radio for data transmission. The whole network
is divided into several clusters based on signal strength. Each cluster has a
head node, and the cluster nodes send data to the cluster head node. The
cluster head nodes send the gathered data to the super node (sink). All the
small sensor nodes use the low power Zigbee radios, and the long distance
Ethernet radios are used between the super node and the station at shore.
Shore
Water Surface
FIGURE 6.11 Water quality monitoring sensor network.
LEACH routing protocol is suitable in the water quality monitoring application.

LEACH is one the most popular hierarchical clustering algorithms used in
wireless sensor networks. The key idea of LEACH is to form clusters of the
sensor nodes based on the received signal strength. LEACH is a distributed
protocol and doesn’t require global knowledge of the network. Each cluster
has a head node, and the head node routes data of the cluster to the sink.
This mechanism saves power because only the cluster head nodes do the data
transmissions to the sink nodes, and all the nodes in each cluster only need to
send the data to the respective cluster head. The cluster head nodes compress
the received data from the cluster nodes and send the aggregated packets to
the sink node in order to reduce the amount of data sent to the sink node.
Therefore, power consumption is further reduced and the lifetime of
the sensor network is increased. The estimated optimal number of the clus-
ter head nodes is 5% of all the sensor nodes. In order to evenly distribute
the power dissipation, the cluster heads are rotated over time.
6.9 Limitations of UWSNs

The limitations of UWSNs are given below.
1. Movement
The sea water creates environmental conditions which negatively influence
the network parameters, such as breaking up the buoy nodes, and sometimes
the WSN may need reconfiguring.
2. Management of Energy Consumption
In general, batteries are the power supply utilized in UWSNs. This means
that energy management of sensor nodes is one of the significant issues that
UWSNs rely on. In order to save energy, wireless communication mecha-
nisms have been applied, which aim to minimize radio activity.
3. Software Design of the Network
In general, WSNs are heavily based on the Network Embedded System. The
operating system is considered to be the core of wireless communication
networks. The program code manages the connectivity and data delivery
between the nodes, the base station, and the end users.
4. Data Transmission and Security
Communication between UWSN components suffers from a number of
issues, such as environmental conditions and network design. For instance,
the water environment decreases the radio signal strength of the data
transmission and can result in an unstable line of signal between wireless

nodes. Additionally, to ensure the confidentiality and integrity of the
gathered data, security protocols and techniques must be applied.
6.10 Research Challenges in UWSNs

Major challenges encountered in the design of underwater acoustic
networks are as follows:
1. It is necessary to develop less expensive, robust “nano-sensors,” for
example, sensors based on nanotechnology, which involves development
of materials and systems at the atomic, molecular, or macromolecular
levels in the dimension range of approximately 1–500 nm.
2. It is necessary to devise periodical cleaning mechanisms against corrosion
and fouling, which may impact the lifespan of underwater devices.
3. There is a need for robust, stable sensors on a high range of temperatures
since sensor drift of underwater devices may be a concern. To this end,
protocols for the calibration of sensors to improve accuracy and precision
of sampled data must be developed.
4. There is a need for new integrated sensors for synoptic sampling
of physical, chemical, and biological parameters to improve the
understanding of processes in marine systems.
5. The underwater channel is impaired because of multi path and fading.
6. Underwater sensors are characterized by high cost because of the
extra-protective sheaths needed for sensors, and also a relatively small
number of suppliers (i.e., not much economy of scale) are available.
7. Battery power is limited and usually batteries cannot be recharged, as
solar energy cannot be exploited.
8. Underwater sensors are more prone to failures because of fouling and
corrosion.
Summary
• WSNs based on radio frequency aerial communications (A-WSNs)
and Under Water Acoustic Sensor Networks (UW-ASNs) are two
broad categories of marine wireless networks depending on the data
transmission medium.
• Limitations of UW-ASNs are bandwidth, propagation delay, error rate,

connectivity loss, and battery power.
• A-WSN nodes include an RF module, power supply, sensor interface,
modules for data, different memory, scientific instruments, and a CPU.
• Three categories of UW-ASNs are static underwater sensor networks,
moving underwater sensor networks, and underwater sensor networks
with autonomous underwater vehicles.
• A few applications of UWSNs are environmental monitoring,
undersea explorations, disaster prevention, assisted navigation, mine
reconnaissance, underwater robots, and oceanography.
• Security services include confidentiality, authentication, integrity, and
availability.
• Communication methods and node mobility are the distinctions
between UWSNs and ground-based WSNs.
• Long-term non-time-critical aquatic monitoring and short-term time-
critical aquatic monitoring are two categories of network architecture
of UWSNs.
• Water quality monitoring is essential to control physical, chemical,
and biological characteristics of water.
• pH, dissolved oxygen, temperature, conductivity, and turbidity of water
are monitored.
• Mobility, energy consumption, software design of the network, data
transmission, and security are the limitations of UWSNs.
Questions
1. What are the challenges in WSNs for oceanographic monitoring?
2. What are two categories of marine wireless networks depending on
the data transmission medium?
3. List the limitations of UW-ASNs.
4. What are the problems of A-WSNs?
5. Draw the A-WSN sensor node for oceanographic monitoring. Explain.
6. Give the diagram of the A-WSN general architecture and explain

the blocks.
7. Compare different wireless communication technologies.
8. List oceanographic sensors and surface sensors.
9. Give the configuration of buoys used in A-WSNs.
10. With the help of diagram, what do you mean by underwater sensor
networks with AUVs?
11. List the constraints in underwater wireless sensor networks.
12. Draw the schematic of UWSNs.
13. Draw the general architecture of underwater network deployment.
14. List the applications of UWSNs.
15. Draw the sensor node mechanical design.
16. What are the services offered for security?
17. Write about key management in UWSNs security.
18. Explain in detail about the challenges in network protocols for UWSN.
19. Give two categories of UWSNs based on time constraints.
20. In detail write about the UWSNs for long-term non-time-critical
aquatic monitoring.
21. Write in detail about the UWSNs for short-term-time critical a
quatic exploration.
22. List the parameters momtored for water quality.
23. Draw sensor networks for water quality monitoring.
24. List the limitations of UWSNs.
25. List your own practical research challenges in UWSNs.
Further Reading
1. Ocean Electronics by S. R.Vijayalakshmi and S. Muruganand
2. Ocean Instrumentation, Electronics, and Energy by S. R.Vijayalakshmi
3. Underwater Acoustic Sensor Networks by Yang Xiao

4. Wireless Sensor Networks: From Theory to Applications by Ibrahiem
M. M. El Emary and S. Ramakrishnan
References
1. http://www.mdpi.eom/1424-8220/10/7/6948/htm
2. https://www.isi.edu/~johnh/PAPERS/Heidemann06a.pdf
3. http://www.ijettjournal.org/volume-3/issue-2/IJETT-V3I2P215.pdf
CHAPTER
7
INTERNET OF THINGS WSNS
This chapter discusses the integration of wireless sensor networks with
the Internet of Things (IoT).
7.1 An Introduction to the Internet of Things (IoT)

The Internet of Things (IoTs) can be described as connecting everyday
objects like smart phones, Internet TVs, sensors, and actuators to the World
Wide Web where the devices are intelligently linked together, enabling new
forms of communication between things and people, and between things
themselves. Building the IoT has advanced significantly in the last couple
of years since it has added a new dimension to the world of information and
communication technologies. In 2008, the number of connected devices
surpassed connected people, and it has been estimated that by 2020 there
will be 50 billion connected devices, which is seven times the world popula-
tion. Now anyone, from anytime and anywhere, can have connectivity for
anything, and it is expected that these connections will extend and create
an entirely advanced dynamic network of the IoT. The development of the
Internet of Things will revolutionize a number of sectors, from wireless
sensors to nanotechnology.
In fact, one of the most important elements in the Internet of Things
paradigm is wireless sensor networks (WSNs). WSNs consist of smart sens-
ing nodes with embedded CPUs, low power radios, and sensors which are
used to monitor environmental conditions such as temperature, pressure,
humidity, vibration, and energy consumption. In short, the purpose of the
WSN is to provide sensing services to the users. Since the number of users
of the Internet is increasing, it is wise to provide WSN services to this ever-
growing community.
The Internet of Things (IoT) concept is based on the pervasive presence

around us of a variety of things or objects through which unique addressing
schemes are able to interact and cooperate with each other in order to reach
common goals. As the name suggests, the purpose of this architecture is to
interconnect all kinds of objects over the Internet as shown in Figure 7.1.
Network Internet Mobile-Internet Mobile+Peoples +PCs Internet of Things
Mobile Mobile People Mobile
Host Device Device
Device
Host
Host Web Host Host Host Host Host
Host Host Host
Host Mobile Mobile Mobile

Device Device Device Interconnected
People
objects
FIGURE 7.1 Evolution of the Internet.
Definition of the IoT

“The IoT allows people and things to be connected Anytime, Anyplace, with
Anything and Anyone, ideally using Any path/network and Any service.”
Anytime
Any
Context Anyone
Anything Any
Any Body
Device
Internet
of
Things
Any
Any place Service
Any where Any
Any path Business
Any
Network
FIGURE 7.2 Representation of the first definition of the IoT.
The IoT infrastructure allows combinations of different types of smart

items using different but interoperable communication protocols and real-
izes a dynamic heterogeneous network that can be deployed also in inacces-
sible or remote spaces (oil platforms, mines, forests, tunnels, pipes, etc.) or
Internet Of Things WSNs • 215
in cases of emergencies or hazardous situations (earthquakes, fire, floods,

radiation areas, etc.). Giving these objects the possibility to communicate
with each other and to elaborate on the information retrieved from the
surroundings implies having different areas where a wide range of applica-
tions can be deployed. These can be grouped into the following domains:
healthcare, personal and social, smart environment (such as at home or in
the office), futuristic applications, and transportation and logistics, as rep-
resented in Figure 7.3.
Transportation Smart Personal

Health care Futuristic
and Logistics Environments and Social
Comfortable
Logistics Tracking homes Social Robot
offices networking Taxi
Assisted Identification, Industrial Historical City

driving Authentication plants queries Information
model
Mobile
Data Smart museum Losses
ticketing
Collection and gym
Enhanced
Environment game room
Sensing
Monitoring Thefts
Augmented
Maps
FIGURE 7.3 IoT application areas.
7.2 Context Awareness

Context awareness plays an important role in the IoT to enable services
customization according to the immediate situation with minimal human
intervention. Acquiring, analyzing, and interpreting relevant context infor-
mation regarding the user will be a key ingredient to create a whole new
range of smart applications.
Context is any information that can be used to characterize the situa-
tion of an entity. An entity is a person, place, or object that is considered
relevant to the interaction between a user and an application, including
the user and applications themselves. Therefore, context awareness is
the result gained from utilizing context information, such as the ability to
adapt behavior depending on the current situation of the users in context-
aware applications.
Ubiquitous Computing
The focus on context-aware computing evolved from desktop applications,
web applications, mobile computing, ubiquitous computing, to the IoT over
the last decade. This is an era in which computer devices will be embed-
ded in everyday objects, invisible at work in the environment around us; in
which intelligent, intuitive interfaces will make computer devices simple to
use; and in which communication networks will connect these devices to
facilitate anywhere, anytime, always-on communication. Ubiquitous com-
puting is the growing trend toward embedding microprocessors in everyday
objects and refers to how they might communicate and process informa-
tion, creating a world in which things can interact dynamically.
7.3 Integrating WSNs with the Internet

Connecting WSNs to the Internet is possible in the three main approaches
mentioned as follows, differing with the WSN degree of integration into the
Internet structure. Currently adopted by most of the WSNs accessing the
Internet, and presenting the highest abstraction between networks, the first
proposed approach (Figure 7.4) consists of connecting both independent
WSNs and the Internet through a single gateway.
WSN
Internet
G Gateway
FIGURE 7.4 Independent network.
Showing an increasing integration degree, the second approach

(Figure 7.5) forms a hybrid network, still composed of independent
networks, where few dual sensor nodes can access the Internet.
G
WSN
Internet
G Gateway G
Sensor node
FIGURE 7.5 Hybrid network.
Illustrated by Figure 7.6, the last approach is inspired from current

WLAN structure and forms a dense 802.15.4 access point network, where
multiple sensor nodes can join the Internet in one hop.
WSN G
Internet
G Gateway
Sensor node
FIGURE 7.6 Access point network.
It is obvious that the first approach presents a single point of failure due
to the gateway uniqueness. Gateway dysfunction would break down the
connection between the WSN and the Internet. With several gateways and
access points, the second and third scenarios do not present such a weak-
ness. To ensure network robustness, they would consequently be preferred,
if the application supports this type of network structure.
The choice between both remaining integration approaches is influ-

enced by the WSN application scenario. Allowing the coverage of impor-
tant distances, the second approach can be envisaged for WSNs organized
in mesh topology. By offering Internet access in one hop, the third and
last approach can be adopted by WSN applications requiring low latency
and therefore direct connections. Presenting mainly star topology, the con-
cerned WSNs can maintain such organization by having a central gateway
instead of a common base station without Internet access. By considering
the previous WSN application classification, this third approach can be suit-
able for objects and human beings monitored.
It is important to remark that both the second and third integration
approaches support only static network configuration. Indeed, each new
device wanting to join the Internet requires time-consuming gateway
reprogramming. Therefore, the flexibility wanted by the future Internet of
the Things cannot be achieved by both approaches in their current form.
To fulfill the flexibility expectation, adopting the “IP to the Field” para-
digm may be appropriate. In the considered paradigm, sensor nodes are
expected to be intelligent network components, which will no longer be
limited to sensing tasks.
By transferring the intelligence to the sensor nodes, the gateway
functionalities would be restricted to forwarding and protocol transla-
tion. Consequently, gateway reprogramming operations would no lon-
ger be required, and dynamic network configuration could be attained.
Additionally, this shift of intelligence would open new perspectives, includ-
ing geographic-based addressing, for example.
7.4 Architecture of the IoT for WSNs

The architecture of the IoT system is divided into three layers (Figure 7.7):
the Sensor Layer, the Coordinator Layer, and the Supervision Layer.
The Sensor Layer consists of sensors that interact with the environ-
ment. Every sensor was integrated with wireless nodes using an Xbee plat-
form called End Devices. These End Devices form a Mesh network and
send the information gathered by the sensors to the Coordinator Layer
through the sink node called the base station. Messages are routed from
one End Device to another until they reach this base station.
Supervision Layer-Access
Coordinator Real Time Sensor Data
Sensor Layer Layer Anywhere with Internet Access
Web App
E
C
Cloud based
web services
Internet firewall iPad App
Zigbee,
E WiFi GPRS Android App
C Coordinator E Xbee End device
FIGURE 7.7 Architecture for the IoT.
The Coordination Layer is responsible for the management of the data

received from the sensor network. It temporarily stores the gathered data
into a buffer and sends it to the Supervision layer at predefined intervals.
The Base station, which comprises Arduino, an Ethernet shield, and XBee,
is connected to the Internet using a cable and is powered using an AC
adaptor. It serves as a mobile mini application server between the wireless
sensors and the dedicated network and has more advanced computational
resources compared to the End Devices found in the Sensor Layer. At the
base station, the sink node gathers data from wireless sensors using the
Zigbee protocol and sends this data to Cloud-based sensor data platforms.
Finally, the Supervision Layer accommodates the base station with a
Web server to connect and publish the sensor data on the Internet. This layer
stores the sensor data in a database and also offers a Web interface for the end
users to manage the sensor data and generate statistics, thus allowing existing
networks to be connected to other applications with minimal changes.
When integrating future large scale Wireless Sensor Networks with the
Internet Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN), it is envisioned that WSNs will
consist of thousands to millions of tiny sensor nodes, with limited compu-
tational and communication capabilities. When networked together, these
unattended devices can provide high resolution knowledge about sensed
phenomena. Possible applications of these networks range from habitat
and ecological sensing, structural monitoring and smart spaces, emergency
response, and remote surveillance.
Characteristics of Sensor Networks with the IoT

Data Flow Patterns
The most basic use of sensor networks is to treat each node as an indepen-
dent data collection device. Periodically, each node in the network sends
its readings to a central warehouse/data sink. Alternatively, it is possible to
treat sensor networks as essentially distributed databases, in which users
interested in specific information insert a query into the network through a
node (or nodes) usually called the sink, as shown in Figure 7.8. This query
is propagated into the network. Then nodes with the data, called sources in
WSN jargon, respond with the relevant information. Thus one-to-many and
many-to-one data flows dominate the communications in sensor networks.
This can be contrasted with the arbitrary one-to-one addressable flows that
are typical of most IP-based networks.
Energy Constraints
The nodes in unattended large-scale sensor networks are likely to be battery
powered, with limited recharging capabilities. Under these conditions, the
primary network performance metric of interest is the energy efficiency of
operation (a related metric is the lifetime of the network measurable in terms
of the time when a significant portion of nodes in the network fail due to
energy depletion). Typically, communication is significantly more energy
expensive than computation.
user Sensor
Sensor
Field Nodes
Internet
Gateway
Source
FIGURE 7.8 Communication Architecture using a gateway.
In Figure 7.8 the full arrows represent the dissemination of the query, and
the dashed arrows, the data routed back. In this case the gateway is the single
point of access to the WSN, and it performs the conversion of the necessary
protocols including the IP.
Application-specific networking and data-centric routing
Traditional IP-based networks follow the layering principle, which sepa-
rates the application level concerns from network layer routing. This is
necessary because a multitude of applications are expected to run over
a common networking substrate. By contrast, sensor networks are likely
to be quite limited in the applications they perform. This calls for cross-
layer optimizations and application-specific designs. One design principle
that exploits application specificity to significantly reduce communication
energy is the use of in-network processing to filter out irrelevant and redun-
dant information. For example, intermediate nodes may be allowed to look
at the application-level content of packets in order to aggregate them with
information originating from other sources.
user Sensor
Sensor
Field Nodes
Internet
Source
FIGURE 7.9 Communication architecture with direct connection: the difference compared
to Figure 7.8 is that in this case every node has an IP address and can be directly
accessed from any point in the Internet that has wireless capabilities.
Related to this is the distinction between address-centric and data-

centric routing. The Internet was designed around an address-centric
ideology, which works when data is usually attached to a specific host. It
requires prior knowledge of which host to contact. Almost all transactions
(ftp, http, email, etc.) on the Internet have this characteristic, that it is
known a priori where the data is located. For this reason, communication
on the Internet is usually point-to-point, and this requires the ability to
uniquely identify each host through IP addresses.
In sensor networks, however, the query is most likely to be for named

data. For example, in a WSN application, the question is unlikely to be:
“What is the temperature at sensor number 271?” Rather, the question
would be: “Where are the nodes whose temperature exceeds 45 degrees?”
The Directed Diffusion protocol has shown that it is possible to do data-
centric querying and routing without the use of globally unique IP-like
addresses for all nodes in the network.
One advantage of doing without globally unique IDs is that each packet
need not carry address information in the header. Many applications for low
rate sensing will result in small amounts of data per packet (on the order of
a few bytes). IPv6, for example, has 40 bytes of header per packet. Doing
without this header addressing information can result in a significant reduc-
tion in communication overhead and thus energy.
Another argument for doing without globally unique IDs for all nodes
in sensor networks is the complexity of address management in such large-
scale, unattended, self-configuring networks. Keeping in mind the limited
lifetime of disposable sensor nodes and their large numbers, it would oth-
erwise be necessary to implement complex, dynamic address allocation
schemes. These schemes may present an additional energy burden on the
network.
The implementation of the full IP stack on sensor networks may not be
feasible due to the limited computational and memory resources on compo-
nent nodes. Sensor networks are thus in many ways fundamentally different
from traditional IP-based networks, as given in Table 7.1. For these rea-
sons, all-IP, large-scale sensor networks are neither desirable nor feasible.
Table 7.1 Comparison between Traditional IP-Based Networks and Large-
Scale Wireless Sensor Networks
Traditional IP-Based Networks Large Scale Wireless Sensor

Networks
Networking mode Application-independent Application-specific
Routing Paradigm Address-Centric Data-centric, Location-centric
Typical Data Flow Arbitrary, One to one To/from querying sink, One to-
many and many-to-one
Data Rates High (Mbps) Low (kbps)
Resource constraints Bandwidth Energy (battery-operated nodes),
Limited Processing and memory
Traditional IP-Based Networks Large Scale Wireless Sensor

Networks
Network Lifetime Long (years–decades) Short (days–months)
Operation Attended, administered Unattended, Self-configuring
7.5 Gateway-Based Integration

Giving an IP address to every sensor node is not the right approach to inte-
grating sensor networks with the Internet. While it is desirable to not have
to develop new protocols or perform protocol conversion at gateways, the
application-specific property of wireless sensor networks demands this type
of solution. Single or multiple independent gateways are called for in homo-
geneous networks, where all the nodes have the same capability in terms of
processing, energy, and communication resources. In addition to gateways,
an overlay IP network may be utilized in heterogeneous networks, where
some nodes may be more capable than the majority of nodes (for example,
when some laptop computers can be part of the network).
Homogeneous Wireless Sensor Networks

The basic solution for integration in the case of a homogeneous wireless sen-
sor network is to use an application-level gateway to interface the sensor net-
work to the Internet. The gateway may be implemented in the form of a web
server, for example. In the case of simple sensor networks where nodes are
providing information continuously, they can be stored and displayed on a
dynamic web page from the gateway node. In the case of more sophisticated
sensor networks, the gateway can viewed as a front end to a distributed data-
base. The users accessing the gateway server may issue SQL type queries.
The query optimization is performed through data-centric, in-network
processing, and the response is obtained from the network and displayed to
the user. One drawback of this approach is that a lot of data has to be routed
from and back to the gateway, implying that all the nodes near the gateway
will exhaust their energy resources sooner, if they are not rechargeable.
Another possibility is to deploy wireless sensor networks with more than
one independent gateway used as points of interface between the network
and the Internet. Having several points of access to the network would have
two important advantages: eliminating a single point of failure and distrib-
uting evenly the energy consumed by the nodes (assuming the queries on
the different gateways can be load-balanced).
In homogeneous WSNs, where all the nodes have the same capabilities,
the flexibility for other communication architectures is limited.
Heterogeneous Wireless Sensor Networks

Heterogeneous networks allow for the possibility of giving an IP address to
the more capable nodes in the network. In general, capable devices could
perform more tasks, and hence carry more of the burden in the network.
There may also be application-specific reasons why these more capable
devices should be addressable from within and without the network.
For example, if the more capable devices are capable of actuation, they
may need to be addressed in order to be tasked. In other scenarios, the
higher capability nodes may act as addressable cluster heads. In such net-
works, it may be possible to construct an overlay IP network that sits on
top of the underlying wireless sensor network. The technical challenge in
this approach is to construct some kind of tunneling mechanism to allow
the devices with IP addresses to communicate among themselves in an
address-centric manner (Figure 7.10). In general, the IP-addressable nodes
in the network may not be adjacent to each other. To create an overlay IP
network, then, it will be necessary to create some form of a link abstraction
from the multiple hops between nearby IP-addressable nodes. If the inter-
mediate nodes do not have any global identifiers, the link-abstraction will
need to be formed in a data-centric manner.
The problem of creating tunnels depends on the characteristics of the
wireless sensor network. If the application is more likely to have high IP
traffic inside the wireless sensor network, then, multiple paths among the
IP-addressable nodes would be preferred, in order to load balance the con-
sumption of energy in the less capable sensor nodes. On the other hand, if
the IP traffic is going to be low, then a single route can be enough. Building
an overlay network based on a flooded query approach (Directed Diffusion)
would be suitable for high traffic, and also building it using a directed-query
approach (ACQUIRE) would be suitable for low-traffic conditions.
Directed Diffusion is a good candidate to build up the overlay
structure in high-IP-traffic applications. Directed Diffusion is a data-
centric communication paradigm that is quite different from the address-
centric ideology in traditional networks. The goal of Directed Diffusion is
to establish efficient n-way communication between one or more sources
and sinks. In basic Directed Diffusion, an interest for named data is first
distributed through the network via flooding. The interest description is
done by attribute-value pairs. In our case it could be described as:
Internet
sensor field more capable
nodes
sink
FIGURE 7.10 Heterogeneous Network: the lines show the tunneling communicating the
nodes with IP addresses (circles filled dark).
type: IP-addressable // detect nodes that have an IP address

interval: 20ms // send message every 20ms
duration: 200ms // ... a total of 10 messages
Directed
sink Diffusion sink Acquire
a) c)
sink Directed sink Acquire
Diffusion
b) d)
FIGURE 7.11 Heterogeneous WSN with and Overlay IP network.
In Figure 7.11 a) shows the first stage in directed diffusion where the
query is flooded to find all the IP-addressable nodes; b) shows that multiple
routes are obtained with this mechanism; c) ACQUIRE is used to build
up the overlay IP network and observe that the query is sent through a
path—one that can be randomly chosen; and d) shows the overlay obtained
by ACQUIRE where only one path is obtained.
This initial interest can be seen as exploratory and the data rate should
be low. As the interest is propagated, the nodes set up gradients from the
source back to the sink. Upon reception, the sources with relevant data
(IP-addressable nodes) respond with the appropriate information stream.
For our example the response could be of the form:
type: IP-addressable // the sensor node has an IP address
address: IP-address // IP address of replying node
This data is sent back through the interest’s gradient path. After recep-
tion, the sink must refresh and reinforce the most efficient paths. Finally,
the sink can select n-paths depending on the expected IP traffic; higher
traffic would imply more paths in the overlay structure. Figure 7.11 a) and
b) show the directed diffusion mechanism. Note that once the overlay paths
are created, they may be used for arbitrary communication between the
IP-addressable nodes, not only between the nodes and the sink.
The main advantage of implementing the overlay structure with
Directed Diffusion is that it can provide multiple paths; however, the
amount of energy consumed by the network is high. If the IP traffic is
expected to be low and the number of IP-addressable nodes is known a pri-
ori, then a more energy-efficient routing method can be used to construct
the overlay. The basic idea is to send an agent to traverse the network and
find all the IP-addressable nodes, instead of flooding.
One proposed routing mechanism that uses agents in WSNs is
ACQUIRE. ACQUIRE is a novel resource discovery mechanism that
presents significant savings in terms of energy compared with flooding, at
a cost of longer delays. ACQUIRE is suitable for one-shot, complex que-
ries. For creating an overlay IP network, a one-shot query could be sent
to find routing information about nodes X, Y, Z, which are known to have
IP addresses. In ACQUIRE, the active query is forwarded step by step
through a sequence of nodes. At each intermediate step the node which is
currently carrying the active query does a lookahead of d hops in order to
resolve the query partially. Once the resource is found, the required data
is sent back. For our purposes, routing information to these nodes must be
included in the data that is sent back (e.g., by including the intermediate
routing nodes in the data, as in source routing). Figure 7.11 c) and 7.11 d)
show the ACQUIRE mechanism.
7.6 The IoT and WSN Design Principles

The Internet of Things (IoT) applications capture data from the physi-
cal world, communicate this data to a central server, and run analytics on it.
In order to complete the IoT loop, the user has to select sensors, choose a
compatible platform to plug in those sensors, write the firmware, select data
protocols, establish communication to the server, and ensure security of the
transferred data. The IoT creates an intelligent, invisible network fabric that
can be sensed, controlled, and programmed. IoT-enabled products employ
embedded technology that allows them to communicate, directly or indirectly,
with each other or the Internet. To date, the world has deployed about 5 bil-
lion “smart” connected things. In a lifetime, one will experience life with a
trillion-node network. The industry will only achieve the reality of 50 billion
connected devices by simplifying how things connect and communicate today.
A problem arises when the user wants data related to machine utilization,
power consumption, the temperature of the system, and excess vibration
in machines, and wants to store this data on a computer system, access it
on a mobile phone, get instant alerts, and share these reports with other
concerned people. The solution to this is the platforms. These platforms
comprise hardware and software that connect industrial equipment,
machines, and sensors to the Internet in a plug and play model and let
users control field devices from a central dashboard. They can be used for
a variety of purposes including the following:
1. Connecting industrial protocol equipment to the Internet, customer
relationship management, and enterprise resource planning systems.
2. Collecting physical data such as temperature, vibration, stress, and
pressure.
3. Establishing solar powered off-grid units to collect sensor data.
4. Controlling units deployed in the field from a central location.
5. Taking decisions based on sensor data.
Given below is a step by step operation to the solution to working with
the IoT.
1. Select the sensors required for an application from the catalog of com-
patible sensors provided.
2. Plug the selected sensors on the small form factor board.
3. Upload the firmware provided.

4. Power the board using a solar panel, lithium-polymer battery, or
mains electricity.
5. Connect it to the cloud gateway using either a wired (Ethernet, RS485,
etc.) or a wireless (GSM, Zigbee, etc.) solution.
6. Start getting data collected by the sensor on cloud, an Android applica-
tion, or external cloud services such as web services.
Platforms have a secure digital (SD) card memory onboard. There is an
external random access memory (RAM) that increases the power of onboard
processing. It also has general-purpose input/output pins to interface with
multiple digital and analog devices and sensors. By powering the device on
battery or solar energy and transmitting data over the Global System for
Mobile Communication (GSM), one can make a true off-the-grid system.
One can also set up a wireless (Zigbee) sensor mesh network with solar
power in order to collect physical data from regions that have no network
coverage or even electricity.
Challenges in implementing the IoT
1. Technical challenges include government regulations with regards to
spectrum allocation, security, battery issues, cost, and privacy.
2. Security, standards, and overburdening the network are three require-
ments that need to be focused on before implementing mass adoption.
3. Good throughput is important for IoT, but there will be trade-offs
between data speed and battery life. Multiple input multiple output
(MIMO) technology is set to be a key part of these efficiency measures.
4. Existing IoT sensors are not equipped to take advantage of 5G. New
devices may need to have multiple antennae for fewer dropouts.
5. An IoT scenario deals with big volumes of data due to the large num-
ber of sensors involved. There are three main problems that must be
solved: resolution, sensitivity, and reliability. Compressed sensing in-
volves reducing the number of samples collected in an IoT wireless
sensor network. Thus, it is possible to create standalone applications
that require fewer resources.
6. When an application involves a large number of sensor networks that

are sending data on a continuous basis, it becomes important to cap-
ture that information effectively and keep as much of it as possible
for further analysis. Such analyses are important to understand trends,
forecast events, and other functions. In these cases, data size would
grow non-linearly in a rather short period of time.
Challenges for WSNs in an IoT

The “IP to the Field” paradigm involves assigning additional responsibilities to
sensor nodes in addition to their usual sensing functionality. To highlight and
discuss the challenges emerging from such novel responsibility assignment,
the three potential tasks that the sensor nodes would have to accomplish are
as follows: security, quality of service management, and network configuration.
A. Security
In common WSNs without Internet access, the sensor nodes may already
play an important role to ensure data confidentiality, integrity, availability,
and authentication depending on the application sensitivity. However, the
current identified attack scenarios require a physical presence near the
targeted WSN in order to jam, capture, or introduce malicious nodes, for
example. By opening WSNs to the Internet, such location proximity would
no longer be required, and attackers would be able to threaten WSNs from
everywhere. In addition to this novel location diversity, WSNs may have to
address new threats like malware introduced by the Internet connection
and evolving with attacker creativity. Most current WSNs connected to the
Internet are protected by a central and unique powerful gateway ensuring
efficient protection. However, a direct reuse of such existing security mech-
anisms is made impossible by the scarce energy, memory, and computa-
tional resources of the sensor nodes. At last, many services on the Internet
make use of cryptography with large key lengths such as RSA-1024, which
are not currently supported by sensor nodes. Consequently, innovative
security mechanisms must be developed according to the resource con-
straints to protect WSNs from novel attacks originating from the Internet.
B. Quality of Service
With gateways acting only as repeater and protocol translators, sensor
nodes are also expected to contribute to quality of service management by
optimizing the resource utilization of all heterogeneous devices that are

part of the future Internet of Things. Not considered as a weakness, the
device heterogeneity opens new perspectives in terms of workload distri-
bution. In fact, resource differences may be exploited to share the current
workload between nodes offering available resources. Improving the QoS,
such collaborative work is consequently promising for mechanisms requir-
ing a high amount of resources like security mechanisms. Nevertheless,
the existing approaches ensuring QoS in the Internet are not applicable
in WSNs, as sudden changes in the link characteristics can lead to signifi-
cant reconfiguration of the WSN topology. It is therefore mandatory to find
novel approaches toward ensuring delay and loss guarantees.
C. Configuration
In addition to security and QoS management, sensor nodes can also be
required to control the WSN configuration, which includes covering dif-
ferent tasks, such as address administration to ensure scalable network
constructions and ensuring self-healing capabilities by detecting and elimi-
nating faulty nodes or managing their own configuration. However, self con-
figuration of participating nodes is not a common feature in the Internet.
Instead, the user is expected to install applications and recover the system
from crashes. In contrast, the unattended operation of autonomous sensor
nodes requires novel means of network configuration and management.
7.7 Big Data and the IoT in WSNS

There are roughly three distinct stages for the Internet of Things (IoT).
First, data is collected using sensors. At the next step, this data is analyzed
with the help of complex algorithms that were embedded into the IoT
device or cloud-based data processing. This is followed by decision mak-
ing (using analytical engines) and transmission of data to the decision mak-
ing server. If the information collected so quite large and complex that it
becomes difficult to analyze using traditional data processing techniques,
we call it Big Data. Results made from this analysis are then transmitted to
the actuator system, where the decision is implemented.
The important thing to understand about the IoT is that it is not just
about reporting if lights are on a parked car or to switch off a TV. The
real magic is in that it can figure out potential situations that are about to
happen and then go ahead and implement preventive measures before the
problem actually occurs. Machine-to-machine device management service

providers look at figuring out which among these enormous data are use-
ful and how to segregate them into consumable chunks that can be sold to
different organizations or enterprises. The approach they take is to develop
an adaptation for each of these machines that communicates in different
languages, and hence shield that chaos from the consumer, using an intel-
ligent gateway that presents a unified, sensible view.
Live digital recording methods, artificial intelligence, and complex
analytics software can be used to provide content capturing, management,
tracking, and analysis solutions for the department of justice and the judi-
ciary. These products can be used to capture live proceedings, right from
the crime scene to police investigations to the court room, in the form of
text and high quality audio and video on an enterprise mobility platform. An
artificially intelligent computer can use its own algorithms to aggregate the
different types of information feeds, correlate them, and present the ana-
lyzed data in a form that is easily understood by the viewer. With the tech-
nologies like Big Data analytics and enterprise video analytics being used,
this method could realize otherwise unnoticeable insights, patterns, and
correlations in the huge amount of evidence and data, and hence provide
a powerful, predictive, and visual analysis platform. This method can also
be used in smart classrooms, where the teacher can assess which student
is less focused or misbehaving in class. In medical applications the system
can suggest all possible medical conditions of a patient based on his or her
symptoms and histories.
Enables Intelligent Manufacturing

Manufacturers use the IoT in agriculture. The plants are farmed by data-
driven agricultural technology, powered by sensor arrays working in tandem
with cloud computing solutions to crunch data and ensure that the environ-
ment remains at optimal levels throughout the growth process. This includes
monitoring temperature, humidity, and fertilizer composition as they try to
figure out the best growing conditions and ways to control microorganisms.
A food and agricultural cloud solution leverages information and commu-
nication technology (ICT) to dramatically improve the efficiency of agri-
cultural operations. Manufacturers can continuously analyze agricultural
data for highly productive cultivation and facilitate the entire management
process, including management, production, and sales, for a more efficient
agricultural operation.
Another example is smarter manufacturing with IoT motorcycle plants.

Software in the plant keeps records of how different equipment performs,
such as the speed of fans in the painting booth. The software then automati-
cally adjusts the machinery when it detects that the fan speed, temperature,
or humidity has deviated from acceptable ranges.
Applications incorporating Big Data could be useful for manufacturers
who have deployed the IoT in a full fledged manner. To ensure delivery of
data collected from factory-wide IoT implementation, manufacturers need
networks that can cope with RF challenges in the plant, harsh environmen-
tal conditions, and reliability for transmission of alarms and real-time data
stream processing. Instead of transmitting huge amounts of unprocessed
data over factory floors, the processing can be done in the device itself. This
means that the system will now only have to transmit results to the central
system, resulting in a lower amount of transmitted data. The programmable
SoCs (System on Chips) could be used to crunch this data by leveraging
the massive parallel processing power of field programmable gate arrays
(FPGAs) with embedded microprocessors. These complete systems on
a programmable chip form a sort of reprogrammable CPU architecture.
Some examples of vendors with these kind of chips are the Xilinx Zynq,
Altera Arria, and ActelSmartFusion families.
Predictive Engine Diagnostics

Big time engine makers like Rolls Royce, BMW, and Mercedes Benz jumped
into Big Data and the IoT business. Their engine health monitoring unit
combines latest sensor technologies with data collection, management, and
analysis techniques, letting them accurately predict engine failures at an early
stage. This optimizes engine maintenance and repair schedules, thereby
improving safety and providing better consumer service at lower costs.
Taking one step further in the Big Data business model, Rolls Royce
developed a snake robot that is equipped with self positioning, reason-
ing, planning, and adaptation capabilities. The 1.25cm (half-inch) diam-
eter robot named MiRoR (miniaturized robotic systems for holistic in situ
repair and maintenance works in restrained and hazardous environments)
can take pictures of engine interiors and send it in real time to experts who
control it remotely. This will let engine experts quickly find faults in large,
complex machines like aircraft.
Mercedes Benz is an example of an automotive manufacturer who has
embraced the IoT. The roadside assistance, safety, and security features
provided by this popular car manufacturer have been enhanced with the
introduction of the mbrace feature in their cars. Their new system now
enables remote vehicle controls, performs remote engine diagnostics, and
delivers software updates to keep the car running perfectly. These also
monitor fleet performance and understand journey management to deliver
a variety of solutions that help end users reduce fuel consumption and fleet
size while maintaining performance.
Energy Management with Big Data

Several terabytes of data coming from sensors and energy meters can be
used for intelligent monitoring of power usage and increasing the efficiency
of the whole system. The smart building is a concept of making buildings
smarter and energy efficient using the IoT and Big data analyses. An exam-
ple is the smart, Wi-Fi enabled, sensor driven, programmable, self adapting
thermostat. It monitors the user’s temperature adjustments and uses sen-
sors (temperature, humidity, and activity sensors) and sophisticated algo-
rithms to learn and identify patterns, which are later used to intelligently
control the heating of the home, intuitively. It adjusts the temperature
according to the time of the day, weather conditions, and human activi-
ties inside the home, thereby providing an effective use of energy. Being
Wi-Fi connected, the device follows current weather forecasts and adjusts
the room temperature accordingly. It can also be controlled from remote
locations using laptops, tablets, and smart phones.
Intelligent solar and wind analytics is another area. It uses Big Data
analytics to provide operational intelligence for solar power plants, wind
turbines, and other IoT equipment. Data from various sensor components
like anemometers (to measure wind speed and direction), pyranometers
(to measure solar irradiance on planar surface), pressure sensors, tem-
perature sensors, and humidity sensors can help understand the potential
of energy available for conversion. Sensors within the equipment’s sub-
systems, such as generators, rotor systems, gearboxes, solar panels, and
inverters, give information on the electrical and mechanical performance
of the system.
Interfacing with hundreds of different sensors, supervisory control and
data acquisition (SCADA) systems and smart meters pull information col-
lected by them to the cloud and analyze this massive and complex data
using the tools for better predictive maintenance and forecast. A web-based
platform is made available to the customer, where they can gauge the health
of the device monitor and its performance, and view forecasts and predic-
tions of component failure. These factors further increase the efficiency,
effectiveness, and hence the revenue of the system.
Life Sciences and Medicine

Big Data analysis in IoT networks is taking the idiom “prevention is better
than cure” to a whole new level. Advanced sensors, mobile apps, and exten-
sive databases are helping us reach the goal of personal health improvement.
Brain computer interface (BCI), also known as brain-machine inter-
face (BMI), mind machine interface (MMI), or direct neural interface is a
method that conjoins the human brain and machines, and lets you control
external devices like bionic modules using thoughts. The system consists of
several powerful and precise sensors (typically multi-electrode arrays) that
collect brain signals, a decoder that can detect and interpret neural sig-
nals related to each activity, and an external module like a computer screen
or robotic arm that translates these electronic signals into corresponding
actions. This technology is a breakthrough in the field of medicine, as it can
help restore functions to patients with disabilities.
Nanotechnology with the IoT

Sensors and actuator units make an IoT device a functional system that
is capable of monitoring correct physical parameters and responding cor-
respondingly. These sensors and actuators are prevalent at macro scale in
industrial applications and these technologies cannot be scaled for numbers
that IoT business roadmaps foresee. Nanotechnology will help build novel
sensors and actuators in IoT domains such as ambient monitoring, automo-
biles, health monitoring of buildings, biomedical applications, and many
more. Bulk sensors are replaced with components that are sensitive, rug-
ged, stable, scalable, economical, and have small form factor and low power,
making them viable for the IoT. Furthermore, nanotechnology promises
to integrate sensors, actuators, processors, radios, and energy harvesting
devices to make the Internet of nano-enabled Things in the near future for
more potential applications.
Consumers already have connected things like thermostats, energy
meters, lighting control systems, music streaming and control systems,
remote video streaming boxes, pool systems, and irrigation systems, with
more to come. Most of these systems have some connectivity through a
Web site so that a user can manage them through a standard Web browser
or a smart phone app, which acts as a personal network operations center.
Smart grid
Automated Lighting
Pool Sensor
Smart appliances Garage door opener
Smart Thermostat
Security system
Gas/Water meter
Smart e-meter
WLAN/HAN gateway
Splinkler system
FIGURE 7.12 IoT enabled home with connected devices and appliances working invisibly
for consumers.
While both the industrial and consumer scenarios are exciting, deploy-
ment is not simplified since they are all disparate vertical systems. The
systems may use the exact same protocols and OS underpinnings, but the
communications layers are inconsistent. Each also uses open application
programming interfaces (APIs) without a horizontal connection, which
would lead to easier cross application integration.
Take for example a sprinkler control system. It can have a level of intel-
ligence so it knows when to water based on sensors and Internet weather
data under programmable control. However, it does not know anything
about motion sensors around a house that might indicate a reason to delay
the sprinklers in a zone to avoid drenching the dog or kids. There are no
motion sensor inputs on the sprinkler controller, so other motion control
vertical integration needs to be used to transfer data to another cloud
server. Then the two cloud servers need to be “glued” together somehow.
Hopefully, both system integrations allow for some small amount of addi-
tional control. However, hope is never a good word in electronic systems.
An additional vertical application written in Perl, Python, PHP, or another
programming language on a server can program a connection that allows
motion to delay the sprinkler zone (or other logic the user may want).
7.8 Challenges in the IoT WSNs

Preparing the lowest layers of technology for the horizontal nature of the
IoT requires manufacturers to deliver on the most fundamental chal-
lenges, including:
Connectivity
There will not be one connectivity standard that “wins” over the others.
There will be a wide variety of wired and wireless standards as well as pro-
prietary implementations used to connect the things in the IoT. The chal-
lenge is getting the connectivity standards to talk to one another with one
common worldwide data currency.
Power management
More things within the IoT will be battery powered or use energy harvest-
ing to be more portable and self-sustaining. Line-powered equipment will
need to be more energy efficient. The challenge is making it easy to add
power management to these devices and equipment. Wireless charging will
incorporate connectivity with charge management.
Security
With the amount of data being sent within the IoT, security is a must.
Built-in hardware security and use of existing connectivity security proto-
cols is essential to secure the IoT. Another challenge is simply educating
consumers to use the security that is integrated into their devices.
Complexity
Manufacturers are looking to add connectivity to devices and equipment that
has never been connected before to become part of the IoT. Ease of design
and development is essential to get more things connected, especially when
typical RF programming is complex. Additionally, the average consumer needs
to be able to set up and use their devices without a technical background.
Rapid Evolution
The IoT is constantly changing and evolving. More devices are being added
every day and the industry is still in its naissance. The challenge facing
the industry is the unknown. Unknown devices. Unknown applications.
Unknown use cases. Given this, there needs to be flexibility in all facets
of development, for example, processors and microcontrollers that range
from 16–1500 MHz to address the full spectrum of applications from a

microcontroller (MCU) in a small, energy-harvested wireless sensor node
to high-performance, multi-core processors for IoT infrastructure. A wide
variety of wired and wireless connectivity technologies are needed to meet
the various needs of the market. Last, a wide selection of sensors, mixed
signals, and power-management technologies are required to provide the
user interface to the IoT and energy-friendly designs.
For many engineers, the greatest challenge in designing for the Internet
of Things (IoT) is connectivity. Implementing robust and secure access to
the Internet or Wide Area Network (WAN) is outside their range of expe-
rience. To make design even more difficult, developers need to support
access to multiple devices that are limited in their processing capability.
Connectivity must also be added in a way that does not adversely impact
overall system cost or power efficiency.
The diversity of end points a gateway must support raises design con-
cerns as well. Directly connecting a simple node like a pressure sensor to
the Internet can be complex and expensive, especially if the node does not
have its own processor. In addition, different types of end equipment sup-
port varying interfaces. To collect and aggregate data from a disparate set
of nodes requires a means for bridging devices with a range of processing
capabilities and interfaces together in a consistent and reliable way.
Gateways offer an elegant means for simplifying the networking of
“things.” They achieve this by supporting the different ways nodes natively
connect, whether this is a varying voltage from a raw sensor, a stream of
data over I2C from an encoder, or periodic updates from an appliance via
Bluetooth®. Gateways effectively mitigate the great variety and diversity
of devices by consolidating data from disparate sources and interfaces and
bridging them to the Internet. The result is that individual nodes don’t
need to bear the complexity or cost of a high-speed Internet interface in
order to be connected.
7.9 Simple Versus Embedded Control Gateways

There are several ways to implement an IoT gateway, depending upon the
application. Two common approaches are a simple gateway and an embed-
ded control gateway. Both provide consolidated connectivity by aggregating
data from multiple end points. In general, a simple gateway organizes and
packetizes the data for transport over the Internet. It is also responsible for
distributing data back to end points in applications where two-way commu-
nication is advantageous or required.
Note that a gateway is different from a router. A router manages similar
traffic, and it connects devices that share a common interface. For example,
the devices that connect to a home router all use IP. In contrast, because
a gateway functions as a bridge, it must be able to route different types
of traffic, aggregate data from varying communication interfaces, and con-
vert these streams to a common protocol for access across the WAN. Some
devices might use IP natively while others might use PAN-based protocols
like Bluetooth, Zigbee, or 6LoWPAN. Nodes that are simple sensors may
need to be connected to an ADC to convert their raw analog voltage to a
digital value before transport.
An embedded control gateway extends the functionality of a simple
gateway by providing processing resources and intelligence for handling
local applications. This can take the form of shared processing resources
where the gateway performs tasks that would otherwise occur on nodes.
For example, an embedded control gateway could evaluate and filter sen-
sor data as well as implement high level management tasks. After evaluat-
ing and filtering sensor data, a gateway could determine whether a critical
threshold has been passed. If so, it could then trigger an alarm that is passed
up through the network to alert an appropriate manager.
Having an intelligent embedded control IoT gateway can reduce the
complexity and cost of end points. Depending upon the application, this
can result in significant system savings. Consider a security system with
an array of sensors to which it connects. Consolidating processing, such
as sensor data filtering, in the gateway enables nodes to leverage a shared
resource, making each node simpler as well as lower in cost.
The same holds for enabling connectivity. IP is a complex protocol
to implement with relatively high overhead for more simple IoT nodes.
Instead, simple nodes can connect to a PAN using a wired connection like
I2C or a wireless interface like Bluetooth. The gateway also connects to the
PAN and then bridges each connection to an IP-based WAN interface like
Wi-Fi or Ethernet. In both of these cases, savings include lower processing,
memory, and power requirements. Nodes can therefore be less expensive
as well as more efficient.
When these savings are spread across a network, they add up quickly.
End points that have to house their own intelligence and WAN connec-
tivity require more complex architectures. Using a consolidated or shared
architecture, the cost of each end point can be substantially reduced, more
than making up for any increase in gateway cost through volume savings.
Reducing the complexity of nodes also reduces overall power consumption
for applications where nodes have limited battery life or operate on energy
harvesting sources.
Distributed intelligence also accelerates the implementation of new
applications. Consider smart appliances that use time-of-day information
from the utility meter to operate during off peak hours to reduce energy
costs. Implementing this intelligence at the node level requires that the
washer, dryer, and dishwasher be able to communicate with the utility meter.
When each appliance comes from a different company, the interface to
use this feature will likely differ, creating interoperability issues. In addi-
tion, to take advantage of this feature, consumers would need to buy new
appliances. Enabling intelligence in a gateway addresses both interoper-
ability issues on a local level while minimizing the changes required to con-
nect appliances. Rather than require full intelligence in each appliance,
the gateway can provide the base intelligence for all devices. This also has
the advantage of consolidating management of new features for consum-
ers; rather than needing to figure out and integrate each new appliance as
it enters the home, the consumer only needs to understand how to manage
the gateway. An intelligent gateway also better addresses the issues that
arise from connecting disparate nodes, compared to users manually con-
necting each device or appliance to the Internet.
For many applications, an intelligent gateway can eliminate the need
for a dedicated onsite management or control end point. For example, with
an integrated LCD controller, a gateway can support a user interface so
users can directly interact with nodes. Alternatively, an intelligent gateway
can provide a web-based user interface, accessible through a PC, tablet, or
smart phone, to allow users to easily access additional built-in applications.
This enables the gateway to serve as a flexible and dynamically program-
mable onsite control point. This in turn lowers the cost of installation of
new systems as well as enables third parties to introduce new technology
and devices with a significantly lower cost of entry.
Finally, a gateway can serve as a fabric between co-located nodes when

Internet access is lost or temporarily interrupted. This ensures robust local
connectivity without the cloud, thus increasing the reliability of the local
network to maintain its intended functions.
There are several ways that an IoT gateway can extend connectivity to
nodes, as shown in Figure 7.13. In Figure 7.13(a), nodes connect to the
IoT via a gateway. The nodes themselves are not IP-based and thus can-
not directly connect to the Internet/WAN. Rather, they use either wired or
wireless PAN technology to connect to the gateway with a less expensive
and less complex mode of connectivity. The gateway maintains an IoT agent
for each node that manages all data to and from the nodes. In this case,
application intelligence can also be located in the gateway.
In Figure 7.13(b), nodes connect directly to the Internet using a WAN
connection such as Wi-Fi or Ethernet. The gateway serves primarily as a
router; in fact, it can be simply a router when nodes have their own IoT
agent and autonomously manage themselves. Figure 7.13(c) is similar to
7.13(b), except that nodes connect directly to the Internet using a PAN con-
nection such as 6LoWPAN. In this case, the gateway serves as a translation
point between the PAN and WAN.
Today, the highest profile IoT applications are industrial, medical, and
security. As this technology matures, it is clear that it will completely change
how we live and do business in every industry.
(a) (b) (c)

Via IoT Gateways Directly - IoT nodes Directly - Lite IoT nodes
Internet Internet Internet
Internet Router Internet Router Internet Router

IoT Agent 6LowPAN gateway
IoT Gateway
IoT Agent IoT Agent
Zigbee BLE Wired IoT Agent IoT Agent 6Low PAN 6Low PAN
node node node WiFi node Ethernet node node node
Sensors & Actuators Sensors & Actuators Sensors & Actuators
FIGURE 7.13 There are several ways that an IoT gateway can extend connectivity to nodes.
In Figure 7.13 (a) nodes connect to the IoT via a gateway using a less
expensive and less complex wired or wireless PAN technology; (b) nodes
connect directly to the Internet using a WAN connection such as Wi-Fi or

Ethernet; (c) nodes connect indirectly to the Internet using a PAN connec-
tion such as 6LoWPAN.
With the wide acceptance of Internet Protocol (IP), it is becoming easier
to process data and make meaningful use of information. Lot of companies
provide enterprise-level database solutions for data storage and software
tools to streamline business processes, such as asset tracking, process control
systems, and building management systems as seen in Figure 7.14. Smart
phones and tablets provide people with useful and actionable information,
such as live parking information or real-time machine health monitoring to
inform maintenance schedules. And while there are wireless sensors in place
today, there is a hunger for more sensor data to measure and optimize pro-
cesses that have not been previously measured.
To further enable wide-scale deployment of sensors, IP standard efforts
are underway, with the goal of making small wireless sensors as easy to access
as web servers. These efforts are the confluence of two driving forces: the
proven low power, highly reliable performance of time-synchronized mesh
networks, and the ongoing IP standard efforts for seamless integration into
the Internet. Together these forces will drive relatively small, low power
sensors that communicate reliably and are IP-enabled.
Process Control
Asset Tracking
MANAGEMENT
SYSTEMS
CLOUD SERVICES
Reliable
Low Power
Wireless
Sensor
Networks
FIGURE 7.14 Making IP-enabled wireless sensors reliable and low power will enable wide-
spread usage.
Summary
• The IoT allows people and things to be connected anytime, anyplace,
with anything and anyone, ideally using any network and any service.
• Context is any information that can be used to characterize the
situation of a person, place, or object that is considered relevant to
the interaction between a user and an application.
• Context awareness is the ability to adapt behavior depending on the
current situation of the users in context-aware applications.
• The architecture of the IoT system is divided into three layers: sensor
layer, coordinator layer, and supervision layer.
• Traditional IP and WSN networks are different in network mode,
routing paradigm, data flow, data rate, resource constraints, network
lifetime, and operation.
• Integration of WSNs with the IoT is based on gateways of two types:
homogeneous WSNs and heterogeneous WSNs.
• Challenges of WSN IoT parameters are security, quality of service,
configuration, connectivity, power management, complexity, and
rapid evolution.
Questions
1. Write about the evolution of the Internet.
2. Define the IoT.
3. List the IoT application areas.
4. Define context and context awareness.
5. What do you mean by ubiquitous computing?
6. Explain with a diagram different methods of integrating the WSN to
the Internet.
7. Draw the architecture of the IoT and explain.
8. Write the characteristics of sensor networks with the IoT.
9. Compare traditional IP-based networks and large-scale wireless sen-
sor networks.
10. Write two different methods of gateway-based integration in detail.

11. What are the design principles of the IoT and WSNs?
12. List the challenges for WSNs in the IoT.
13. Explain about Big Data and the IoT in WSNs.
14. What do you mean by Big Data?
15. Give the example of an IoT-enabled home structure.
16. Explain about simple versus embedded control gateways.
Further Reading
1. Learning Internet of Things by Peter Waher
2. The Internet of Things by Samuel Greengard
3. Internet of Things: A Hands-On Approach by Arshdeep Bahga and
Vijay Madisetti
References
1. http://www.edn.com/design/analog/4426319/Low-Power-wireless-
sensor-networks for-the-Internet-of-Things
2. http://www.cs.usc.edu/assets/002/82967.pdf
3. http://www.ti.com/ww/en/connect_more/pdf/SWB001.pdf?
DCMP=iot&HQS=iot-nslwp
4. http://www.ti.com/lit/wp/spmy013/spmy013.pdf
CHAPTER
8
WIRELESS MULTIMEDIA
SENSOR NETWORKS
This chapter discusses wireless multimedia sensor networks, software,
and hardware architecture.
8.1 Introduction to Wireless Multimedia Sensor Networks

(WMSNs)
The availability of low-cost hardware such as CMOS cameras and micro-
phones has fostered the development of Wireless Multimedia Sensor
Networks (WMSNs), that is, networks of wirelessly interconnected devices
that are able to ubiquitously retrieve multimedia content such as video and
audio streams, still images, and scalar sensor data from the environment.
With rapid improvements and miniaturization in hardware, a single sensor
device can be equipped with audio and visual information collection mod-
ules. In addition to the ability to retrieve multimedia data, WMSNs will
also be able to store, process in real-time, correlate, and fuse multimedia
data originating from heterogeneous sources. Wireless multimedia sensor
networks will not only enhance existing sensor network applications such
as tracking, home automation, and environmental monitoring, but they will
also enable several new applications such as:
Multimedia Surveillance Sensor Networks

Wireless video sensor networks will be composed of interconnected,
battery-powered miniature video cameras, each packaged with a low-power
wireless transceiver that is capable of processing, sending, and receiving
data. Video and audio sensors will be used to enhance and complement
existing surveillance systems against crime and terrorist attacks. Large-scale

networks of video sensors can extend the ability of law enforcement agencies
to monitor areas, public events, private properties, and borders.
Storage of Potentially Relevant Activities
Multimedia sensors could infer and record potentially relevant activities
(thefts, car accidents, traffic violations), and make video/audio streams or
reports available for future query.
Traffic Avoidance, Enforcement, and Control Systems
It will be possible to monitor car traffic in big cities or highways and deploy
services that offer traffic routing advice to avoid congestion. In addition,
smart parking advice systems based on WMSNs will allow monitoring of
available parking spaces and provide drivers with automated parking advice,
thus improving mobility in urban areas. Moreover, multimedia sensors may
monitor the flow of vehicular traffic on highways and retrieve aggregate
information such as average speed and number of cars. Sensors could also
detect violations and transmit video streams to law enforcement agencies
to identify the violator, or buffer images and streams in case of accidents for
subsequent accident scene analysis.
Advanced Health Care Delivery
Telemedicine sensor networks can be integrated with 3G multimedia
networks to provide ubiquitous health care services. Patients will carry
medical sensors to monitor parameters such as body temperature, blood
pressure, pulse oximetry, ECG, and breathing activity. Furthermore,
remote medical centers will perform advanced remote monitoring of their
patients via video and audio sensors, location sensors, and motion or activity
sensors, which can also be embedded in wrist devices.
Automated Assistance for the Elderly and Family Monitors
Multimedia sensor networks can be used to monitor and study the behavior
of elderly people as a means to identify the causes of illnesses that affect
them such as dementia. Networks of wearable or video and audio sensors
can infer emergency situations and immediately connect elderly patients
with remote assistance services or with relatives.
Environmental Monitoring
Habitat monitoring uses acoustic and video feeds in which information
has to be conveyed in a time-critical fashion. For example, arrays of video
Wireless Multimedia Sensor Networks • 247
sensors are used by oceanographers to determine the evolution of sandbars

via image processing techniques.
Person Locator Services

Multimedia content such as video streams and still images, along with
advanced signal processing techniques, can be used to locate missing
persons, or identify criminals or terrorists.
Industrial Process Control

Multimedia content such as imaging, temperature, or pressure, among
others, may be used for time-critical industrial process control. Machine
vision is the application of computer vision techniques to industry and
manufacturing, where information can be extracted and analyzed by WMSNs
to support a manufacturing process such as those used in semiconductor
chips, automobiles, food, or pharmaceutical products. For example, in
quality control of manufacturing processes, details of final products are
automatically inspected to find defects. In addition, machine vision systems
can detect the position and orientation of parts of the product to be picked
up by a robotic arm. The integration of machine vision systems with
WMSNs can simplify and add flexibility to systems for visual inspections
and automated actions that require high-speed, high-magnification, and
continuous operation.
WMSNs will stretch the horizon of traditional monitoring and surveil-
lance systems by:
Enlarging the View
The Field of View (FoV) of a single fixed camera, or the Field of Regard
(FoR) of a single moving pan-tilt-zoom (PTZ) camera is limited. Instead, a
distributed system of multiple cameras and sensors enables perception of
the environment from multiple disparate viewpoints, and helps overcome
occlusion effects.
Enhancing the View
The redundancy introduced by multiple, possibly heterogeneous, over-
lapped sensors can provide enhanced understanding and monitoring of the
environment. Overlapped cameras can provide different views of the same
area or target, while the joint operation of cameras and audio or infrared
sensors can help disambiguate cluttered situations.
Enabling Multi-Resolution Views

Heterogeneous media streams with different granularity can be acquired
from the same point of view to provide a multi-resolution description of
the scene and multiple levels of abstraction. For example, static medium-
resolution camera views can be enriched by views from a zoom camera that
provides a high-resolution view of a region of interest. For example, such
feature could be used to recognize people based on their facial characteristics.
Many of the above applications require the sensor network paradigm
to be rethought in view of the need for mechanisms to deliver multimedia
content with a certain level of quality of service (QoS). There are several
main peculiarities that make QoS delivery of multimedia content in sensor
networks an even more challenging, and largely unexplored, task:
Resource Constraints
Sensor devices are constrained in terms of battery, memory, processing
capability, and achievable data rate. Hence, efficient use of these scarce
resources is mandatory.
Variable Channel Capacity
While in wired networks the capacity of each link is assumed to be fixed
and predetermined, in multi-hop wireless networks, the attainable capac-
ity of each wireless link depends on the interference level perceived at the
receiver. This, in turn, depends on the interaction of several functionalities
that are handled by all network devices such as power control, routing, and
rate policies. Hence, capacity and delay attainable at each link are location
dependent, vary continuously, and may be bursty in nature, thus making
QoS provisioning a challenging task.
Cross-Layer Coupling of Functionalities
In multi-hop wireless networks, there is a strict interdependence among
functions handled at all layers of the communication stack. Functionalities
handled at different layers are inherently and strictly coupled due to the
shared nature of the wireless communication channel. Hence, the various
functionalities aimed at QoS provisioning should not be treated separately
when efficient solutions are sought.
Multimedia In-Network Proces sing
Processing of multimedia content has mostly been approached as a
problem isolated from the network-design problem, with a few exceptions
such as joint source-channel coding and channel-adaptive streaming.

Hence, research that addressed the content delivery aspects has typically
not considered the characteristics of the source content and has primarily
studied cross-layer interactions among lower layers of the protocol stack.
However, the processing and delivery of multimedia content are not
independent, and their interaction has a major impact on the levels of
QoS that can be delivered. WMSNs will allow performing multimedia
in-network processing algorithms on the raw data. Hence, the QoS required
at the application level will be delivered by means of a combination
of both cross-layer optimization of the communication process, and
in-network processing of raw data streams that describe the phenomenon
of interest from multiple views, with different media, and on multiple
resolutions. Hence, it is necessary to develop application independent and
self-organizing architectures to flexibly perform in-network processing of
multimedia contents.
8.2 Factors Influencing the Design of Multimedia Sensor

Networks
Wireless Multimedia Sensor Networks (WMSNs) will be enabled by the
convergence of communication and computation with signal processing
and several branches of control theory and embedded computing. This
cross-disciplinary research will enable distributed systems of heterogeneous
embedded devices that sense, interact, and control the physical environment.
There are several factors that mainly influence the design of a WMSN.
Application-Specific QoS Requirements
The wide variety of applications envisaged on WMSNs will have different
requirements. In addition to data delivery modes typical of scalar sensor
networks, multimedia data include snapshot and streaming multimedia
content. Snapshot-type multimedia data contain event-triggered observations
obtained in a short time period. Streaming multimedia content is generated
over longer time periods and requires sustained information delivery. Hence,
a strong foundation is needed in terms of hardware and supporting high-level
algorithms to deliver QoS and consider application-specific requirements.
These requirements may pertain to multiple domains and can be expressed,
among others, in terms of a combination of bounds on energy consumption,
delay, reliability, distortion, or network lifetime.
High Bandwidth Demand

Multimedia content, especially video streams, require transmission band-
width that is orders of magnitude higher than that supported by currently
available sensors. For example, the nominal transmission rate of state-of-
the-art IEEE 802.15.4 compliant component motes is 250 Kbit/s. Data
rates at least one order of magnitude higher may be required for high-end
multimedia sensors, with comparable power consumption. Hence, high
data rate and low-power consumption transmission techniques need to be
leveraged.
Multimedia Source Coding Techniques
Uncompressed raw video streams require excessive bandwidth for a multi-
hop wireless environment. For example, a single monochrome frame in
the NTSC-based Quarter Common Intermediate Format (QCIF, 176
• 120) requires around 21 Kbytes, and at 30 frames per second (fps), a
video stream requires over 5 Mbit/s. Hence, it is apparent that efficient
processing techniques for lossy compression are necessary for multimedia
sensor networks. Traditional video coding techniques used for wire line
and wireless communications are based on the idea of reducing the bit
rate generated by the source encoder by exploiting source statistics. To
this aim, encoders rely on intra-frame compression techniques to reduce
redundancy within one frame, while they leverage inter-frame compression
(also known as predictive encoding or motion estimation) to exploit
redundancy among subsequent frames to reduce the amount of data to be
transmitted and stored, thus achieving good rate-distortion performance.
Since predictive encoding requires complex encoders, powerful processing
algorithms, and entails high energy consumption, it may not be suited for
low-cost multimedia sensors. However, it has recently been shown that the
traditional balance of complex encoder and simple decoder can be reversed
within the framework of the so-called distributed source coding, which
exploits the source statistics at the decoder, and by shifting the complexity
at this end, allows the use of simple encoders. Clearly, such algorithms are
very promising for WMSNs and especially for networks of video sensors,
where it may not be feasible to use existing video encoders at the source
node due to processing and energy constraints.
Multimedia In-Network Processing
WMSNs allow performing multimedia in-network processing algorithms on
the raw data extracted from the environment. This requires new architectures
for collaborative, distributed, and resource-constrained processing that allow

for filtering and extraction of semantically relevant information at the edge
of the sensor network. This may increase the system scalability by reducing
the transmission of redundant information, merging data originated from
multiple views, on different media, and with multiple resolutions. For
example, in video security applications, information from uninteresting scenes
can be compressed to a simple scalar value or not be transmitted altogether,
while in environmental applications, distributed filtering techniques can
create a time-elapsed image. Hence, it is necessary to develop application-
independent architectures to flexibly perform in-network processing of the
multimedia content gathered from the environment.
Power Consumption
Power consumption is a fundamental concern in WMSNs, even more
than in traditional wireless sensor networks. Infact, sensors are battery-
constrained devices, while multimedia applications produce high volumes
of data, which require high transmission rates, and extensive processing.
While the energy consumption of traditional sensor nodes is known to be
dominated by communication functionalities, this may not necessarily be
true in WMSNs. Therefore, protocols, algorithms, and architectures to
maximize the network lifetime while providing the Quality of Service (QoS)
required by the application are a critical issue.
Flexible Architecture to Support Heterogeneous Applications
WMSN architectures will support several heterogeneous and independent
applications with different requirements. It is necessary to develop flexible,
hierarchical architectures that can accommodate the requirements of all
these applications in the same infrastructure.
Multimedia Coverage
Some multimedia sensors, in particular video sensors, have larger sensing
radii and are sensitive to direction of acquisition (directivity). Furthermore,
video sensors can capture images only when there is an unobstructed line of
sight between the event and the sensor. Hence, coverage models developed
for traditional wireless sensor networks are not sufficient for pre deploy-
ment planning of a multimedia sensor network.
Integration with Internet (IP) Architecture
It is of fundamental importance for the commercial development of sensor
networks to provide services that allow querying the network to retrieve
useful information from anywhere and at any time. For this reason, future
WMSNs will be remotely accessible from the Internet, and will therefore
need to be integrated with the IP architecture. The characteristics of WSNs
rule out the possibility of all-IP sensor networks and recommend the use of
application-level gateways or overlay IP networks as the best approach for
integration between WSNs and the Internet.
Integration with Other Wireless Technologies
Large-scale sensor networks may be created by interconnecting local
“islands” of sensors through other wireless technologies. This needs to be
achieved without sacrificing the efficiency of the operation within each
individual technology.
8.3 Network Architecture of WMSNs

The problem of designing a scalable network architecture is of primary
importance. Most proposals for wireless sensor networks are based on a
flat, homogenoeus architecture in which every sensor has the same physical
capabilities and can only interact with neighboring sensors. Traditionally,
the research on algorithms and protocols for sensor networks has focused
on scalability, that is, how to design solutions whose applicability would
not be limited by the growing size of the network. Flat topologies may not
always be suited to handle the amount of traffic generated by multime-
dia applications including audio and video. Likewise, the processing power
required for data processing and communications, and the power required
to operate it, may not be available on each node.
Reference Architecture
Figure 8.1 is a reference architecture for WMSNs, where three sensor
networks with different characteristics are shown, possibly deployed in
different physical locations. The first cloud on the left shows a single-tier
network of homogeneous video sensors. A subset of the deployed sensors
have higher processing capabilities, and are thus referred to as processing
hubs. The union of the processing hubs constitutes a distributed processing
architecture. The multimedia content gathered is relayed to a wireless
gateway through a multi-hop path. The gateway is interconnected to a storage
hub that is in charge of storing multimedia content locally for subsequent
retrieval. Clearly, more complex architectures for distributed storage can be
implemented when allowed by the environment and the application needs,
which may result in energy savings, since by storing it locally, the multimedia
content does not need to be wirelessly relayed to remote locations. The
wireless gateway is also connected to a central sink, which implements the
software front-end for network querying and tasking. The second cloud
represents a single-tiered clustered architecture of heterogeneous sensors
(only one cluster is depicted). Video, audio, and scalar sensors relay data
to a central cluster head, which is also in charge of performing intensive
multimedia processing on the data (processing hub). The cluster head relays
the gathered content to the wireless gateway and to the storage hub. The last
cloud on the right represents a multi-tiered network, with heterogeneous
sensors. Each tier is in charge of a subset of the functionalities. Resource-
constrained, low-power scalar sensors are in charge of performing simpler
tasks, such as detecting scalar physical measurements, while resource-rich,
high-power devices are responsible for more complex tasks. Data processing
and storage can be performed in a distributed fashion at each different tier.
LEGEND
Internet Sink
Multimedia
processing hub
Video sensor
Audio sensor
Gateway
High end
video sensor
Scalar sensor
Wireless
Gateway
Storage hub
(a) (b) (c)
Single-tier flat, Single-tier clustered, Multi-tier
homogeneous sensors, heterogeneous sensors, heterogeneous sensors,
distributed processing, centralized processing distributed processing,
centralized storage centralized storage distributed storage
FIGURE 8.1 Reference Architecture of a wireless multimedia sensor network.
Single-Tier vs. Multi-Tier Sensor Deployment

One possible approach for designing a multimedia sensor application is
to deploy homogeneous sensors and program each sensor to perform all
possible application tasks. Such an approach yields a flat, single-tier network

of homogeneous sensor nodes. An alternative, multi-tier approach is to
use heterogeneous elements. In this approach, resource-constrained, low-
power elements are in charge of performing simpler tasks, such as detecting
scalar physical measurements, while resource rich, high-power devices take
on more complex tasks. For instance, a surveillance application can rely
on low-fidelity cameras or scalar acoustic sensors to perform motion or
intrusion detection, while high-fidelity cameras can be woken up on-demand
for object recognition and tracking. A multi-tier architecture is advocated
for video sensor networks for surveillance applications. The architecture is
based on multiple tiers of cameras with different functionalities, with the
lower tier consisting of low-resolution imaging sensors, and the higher tier
composed of high-end pan-tilt-zoom cameras. Such an architecture offers
considerable advantages with respect to a single-tier architecture in terms
of scalability, lower cost, better coverage, higher functionality, and better
reliability.
Coverage
In traditional WSNs, sensor nodes collect information from the environ-
ment within a pre-defined sensing range, that is, a roughly circular area
defined by the type of sensor being used. Multimedia sensors generally have
larger sensing radii and are also sensitive to the direction of data acquisi-
tion. In particular, cameras can capture images of objects or parts of regions
that are not necessarily close to the camera itself. However, the image can
obviously be captured only when there is an unobstructed line-of-sight
between the event and the sensor. Furthermore, each multimedia sensor/
camera perceives the environment or the observed object from a different
and unique viewpoint, given the different orientations and positions of the
cameras relative to the observed event or region. In a preliminary investi-
gation, the coverage problem for video sensor networks is conducted. The
concept of a sensing range is replaced with the camera’s field of view, that
is, the maximum volume visible from the camera. It is also shown how an
algorithm designed for traditional sensor networks does not perform well
with video sensors in terms of coverage preservation of the monitored area.
Multimedia Sensor Hardware
High-end pan-tilt-zoom cameras and high resolution digital cameras are
widely available on the market. However, while such sophisticated devices
can find application as high-quality tiers of multimedia sensor networks,
one can concentrate on low-cost, low energy consumption imaging and

processing devices that will be densely deployed and provide detailed visual
information from multiple disparate viewpoints, help overcoming occlusion
effects, and thus enable enhanced interaction with the environment.
Low-Resolution Imaging Motes
The recent availability of CMOS imaging sensors that capture and process
an optical image within a single integrated chip, thus eliminating the need
for many separate chips required by the traditional charged-coupled device
(CCD) technology, has enabled the massive deployment of low-cost visual
sensors. CMOS image sensors are already in many industrial and consumer
sectors, such as cell phones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), and con-
sumer and industrial digital cameras. CMOS image quality is now matching
CCD quality in the low and mid range, while CCD is still the technology
of choice for high-end image sensors. The CMOS technology allows inte-
grating a lens, an image sensor, and image processing algorithms, including
image stabilization and image compression, on the same chip. With respect
to CCD, cameras are smaller, lighter, and consume less power. Hence, they
constitute a suitable technology to realize imaging sensors to be interfaced
with wireless motes. However, existing CMOS imagers are still designed to
be interfaced with computationally rich host devices, such as cell phones or
PDAs. The design of an integrated mote for wireless image sensor networks
is driven by the need to endow motes with adequate processing power and
memory size for image sensing applications. It is argued that 32-bit proces-
sors are better suited for image processing than their 8-bit counterparts.
It is shown that the time needed to perform operations such as 2-D con-
volution on an 8-bit processor such as the ATMEL ATmegal28 clocked
at 4 MHz is 16 times higher than with a 32-bit ARM7 device clocked at
48 MHz, while the power consumption of the 32-bit processor is only six
times higher. Hence, an 8-bit processor turns out to be slower and more
energy-consuming.
Medium-Resolution Imaging Motes
The medium imaging board is a high-performance processing platform
designed for sensor, signal processing, control, robotics, and sensor net-
work applications. It is based on Intel’s PXA-255 XScale 400 MHz RISC
processor, which is the same processor found in many handheld comput-
ers including the Compaq IPAQ and the Dell Axim, and has 32 Mbyte
of Flash memory, 64 Mbyte of SDRAM, and Bluetooth or IEEE 802.11
cards. Hence, it can work as a wireless gateway and as a computational hub

for in-network processing algorithms. When connected with a webcam or
other capturing device, it can function as a medium-resolution multimedia
sensor, although its energy consumption is still high. Moreover, although
efficient software implementations exist, XScale processors do not have
hardware support for floating point operations, which may be needed to
efficiently perform multimedia processing algorithms.
Energy Harvesting
Techniques for prolonging the lifespan of battery-powered sensors have
been the focus in multimedia sensor networks. These techniques include
hardware optimizations such as dynamic optimization of voltage and clock
rate, wake-up procedures to keep electronics inactive most of the time, and
energy-aware protocol development for sensor communications. In addition,
energy-harvesting techniques, which extract energy from the environment
where the sensor itself lies, offer another important means to prolong the
lifetime of sensor devices with the technologies to generate energy from
background radio signals, thermoelectric conversion, vibrational excitation,
and the human body.
As far as collecting energy from background radio signals is con-
cerned, unfortunately, an electric field of 1 V/m yields only 0.26 1W/cm2, as
opposed to 100 1W/cm2 produced by a crystalline silicon solar cell exposed
to bright sunlight. Electric fields of intensity of a few volts per meter are
only encountered close to strong transmitters. Another practice, which con-
sists in broadcasting RF energy deliberately to power electronic devices, is
severely limited by legal limits set by health and safety concerns.
While thermoelectric conversion may not be suitable for wireless
devices, harvesting energy from vibrations in the surrounding environment
may provide another useful source of energy. Vibrational magnetic power
generators based on moving magnets or coils may yield powers that range
from tens of microwatts when based on microelectromechanical system
(MEMS) technologies to over a milliwatt for larger devices. Other vibrational
microgenerators are based on charged capacitors with moving plates, and
depending on their excitation and power conditioning, yield power on the
order of 10 +W. It is also reported that recent analysis suggested that 1 cm3
vibrational microgenerators can be expected to yield up to 800 +W/cm3 from
machine-induced stimuli, which is orders of magnitude higher than that
provided by currently available microgenerators. Hence, this is a promising
area of research for small battery-powered devices.
While these techniques may provide an additional source of energy and

help prolong the lifetime of sensor devices, they yield power that is several
orders of magnitude lower as compared to the power consumption of state-
of-the-art multimedia devices. Hence, they may currently be suitable only
for very low duty cycle devices.
Collaborative In-Network Processing

It is necessary to develop architectures and algorithms to flexibly perform
these functionalities in-network with minimum energy consumption and
limited execution time. The objective is usually to avoid transmitting large
amounts of raw streams to the sink by processing the data in the network to
reduce the communication volume.
Given a source of data (e.g., a video stream), different applications
may require diverse information (e.g., raw video stream vs. simple sca-
lar or binary information inferred by processing the video stream). This
is referred to as application-specific querying and processing. Hence, it is
necessary to develop expressive and efficient querying languages, and to
develop distributed filtering and in-network processing architectures, to
allow realtime retrieval of useful information.
Similarly, it is necessary to develop architectures that efficiently allow
performing data fusion or other complex processing operations in-network.
Algorithms for both inter-media and intra-media data aggregation and
fusion need to be developed, as simple distributed processing schemes
developed for existing scalar sensors are not suitable for computation-
intensive processing required by multimedia contents. Multimedia sensor
networks may require computation-intensive processing algorithms (e.g.,
to detect the presence of suspicious activity from a video stream). This may
require considerable processing to extract meaningful information and/or
to perform compression. A fundamental question to be answered is whether
this processing can be done on sensor nodes (i.e., a flat architecture of multi-
functional sensors that can perform any task), or if the need for specialized
devices for example, computation hubs, arises.
Data Alignment and Image Registration

Data alignment consists of merging information from multiple sources.
One of the most widespread data alignment concepts, image registration, is
a family of techniques, widely used in areas such as remote sensing, medical
imaging, and computer vision, to geometrically align different images
(reference and sensed images) of the same scene taken at different times,
from different viewpoints, and/or by different sensors:
Different Viewpoints (Multi-View Analysis)
Images of the same scene are acquired from different viewpoints, to gain a
larger 2D view or a 3D representation of the scene of interest. Main appli-
cations are in remote sensing, computer vision, and 3D shape recovery.
Different Times (Multi-Temporal Analysis)
Images of the same scene are acquired at different times. The aim is to find
and evaluate changes in time in the scene of interest. The main applications
are in computer vision, security monitoring, and motion tracking.
Different Sensors (Multi-Modal Analysis)
Images of the same scene are acquired by different sensors. The objective
is to integrate the information obtained from different source streams to
gain more complex and detailed scene representation.
Registration methods usually consist of four steps, that is, feature
detection, feature matching, transform model estimation, and image
resampling and transformation. In feature detection, distinctive objects
such as closed-boundary regions, edges, contours, line intersections,
corners, and so on are detected. In feature matching, the correspondence
between the features detected in the sensed image and those detected in
the reference image is established. In transform model estimation, the
type and parameters of the so-called mapping functions, which align the
sensed image with the reference image, are estimated. The parameters of
the mapping functions are computed by means of the established feature
correspondence. In the last step, image resampling and transformation, the
sensed image is transformed by means of the mapping functions. These
functionalities can clearly be prohibitive for a single sensor. Hence, research
is needed on how to perform these functionalities on parallel architectures
of sensors to produce single data sets.
8.4 WMSNs as Distributed Computer Vision Systems

Computer vision is a subfield of artificial intelligence, whose purpose
is to allow a computer to extract features from a scene, an image,
or multidimensional data in general. The objective is to present this
information to a human operator or to control some process (e.g., a mobile
robot or an autonomous vehicle). The image data that is fed into a computer
vision system is often a digital image, a video sequence, a 3D volume from
a tomography device, or other multimedia content. Traditional computer
vision algorithms require extensive computation, which in turn entails high
power consumption. WMSNs enable a new approach to computer vision,
where visual observations across the network can be performed by means
of distributed computations on multiple, possibly low-end, vision nodes.
8.5 Application Layer

The functionalities handled at the application layer of a WMSN
are characterized by high heterogeneity, and encompass traditional
communication problems as well as more general system challenges.
The services offered by the application layer include:
(i) providing traffic management and admission control functionalities,
that is, preventing applications from establishing data flows when
the network resources needed are not available;
(ii) performing source coding according to application requirements and

hardware constraints, by leveraging advanced multimedia encoding
techniques;
(iii) providing flexible and efficient system software, that is, operating
systems and middleware, to export services for higher-layer
applications to build upon; and
(iv) providing primitives for applications to leverage collaborative,

advanced in-network multimedia proces sing techniques.
Traffic Classes
Admission control has to be based on QoS requirements of the overlying
application. WMSNs will need to provide support and differentiated service
for several different classes of applications. In particular, they will need to
provide differentiated service between real-time and delay-tolerant applica-
tions, and loss-tolerant and loss-intolerant applications. Moreover, some appli-
cations may require a continuous stream of multimedia data for a prolonged
period of time (multimedia streaming), while some other applications may
require event triggered observations obtained in a short time period (snapshot
multimedia content). The main traffic classes that need to be supported are:
a) Real-Time, Loss-Tolerant Multimedia Streams

This class includes video and audio streams, or multi-level streams
composed of video/audio and other scalar data (e.g., temperature readings),
as well as metadata associated with the stream, that need to reach a human
or automated operator in real-time, that is, within strict delay bounds, and
that are however relatively loss tolerant (e.g., video streams can be within a
certain level of distortion). Traffic in this class usually has high bandwidth
demand.
b) Delay-Tolerant, Loss-Tolerant Multimedia Streams
This class includes multimedia streams that, being intended for storage or
subsequent offline processing, do not need to be delivered within strict
delay bounds. However, due to the typically high bandwidth demand of
multimedia streams and to limited buffers of multimedia sensors, data
in this traffic class needs to be transmitted almost in real-time to avoid
excessive losses.
c) Real-Time, Loss-Tolerant Data
This class may include monitoring data from densely deployed scalar sen-
sors such as light sensors whose monitored phenomenon is characterized by
spatial correlation, or loss-tolerant snapshot multimedia data (e.g., images
of a phenomenon taken from several multiple viewpoints at the same time).
Hence, sensor data has to be received in a timely fashion, but the applica-
tion is moderately loss-tolerant. The bandwidth demand is usually between
low and moderate.
d) Real-Time, Loss-Intolerant Data
This may include data from time-critical monitoring processes such as
distributed control applications. The bandwidth demand varies between
low and moderate.
e) Delay-Tolerant, Loss-Intolerant Data
This may include data from critical monitoring processes, with low or mod-
erate bandwidth demand that require some form of offline post processing.
f) Delay-Tolerant, Loss-Tolerant Data
This may include environmental data from scalar sensor networks, or
non-time-critical snapshot multimedia content, with low or moderate
bandwidth demand.
QoS requirements have recently been considered as application

admission criteria for sensor networks. An application admission control
algorithm is proposed whose objective is to maximize the network lifetime
subject to bandwidth and reliability constraints of the application. An
application admission control method determines admissions based on
the added energy load and application rewards. While these approaches
address application level QoS considerations, they fail to consider multiple
QoS requirements (e.g., delay, reliability, and energy consumption)
simultaneously, as required in WMSNs. Furthermore, these solutions
do not consider the peculiarities of WMSNs, that is, they do not try to
base admission control on a tight balancing between communication
optimizations and in-network computation. There is a clear need for new
criteria and mechanisms to manage the admission of multimedia flows
according to the desired application-layer QoS.
Multimedia Encoding Techniques
The captured multimedia content should ideally be represented in such
a way as to allow reliable transmission over lossy channels (error-resilient
coding), using algorithms that minimize processing power and the amount
of information to be transmitted. The main design objectives of a coder for
multimedia sensor networks are thus:
a) High Compression Efficiency
Uncompressed raw video streams require high data rates and thus consume
excessive bandwidth and energy. It is necessary to achieve a high ratio of
compression to effectively limit bandwidth and energy consumption.
b) Low Complexity
Multimedia encoders are embedded in sensor devices. Hence, they need
to be low complexity to reduce cost and form factors, and low power to
prolong the lifetime of sensor nodes.
c) Error resiliency
The source coder should provide robust and error-resilient coding of source
data.
8.6 Transport Layer

In applications involving high-rate data, the transport layer assumes
special importance by providing end-to-end reliability and congestion
control mechanisms. Particularly in WMSNs, the following additional

considerations are in order to accommodate both the unique characteristics
of the WSNparadigm and multimedia transport requirements.
Effects of Congestion
In WMSNs, the effect of congestion may be even more pronounced as
compared to traditional networks. When a bottleneck sensor is swamped
with packets coming from several high-rate multimedia streams, apart
from temporary disruption of the application, it may cause rapid depletion
of the node’s energy. While applications running on traditional wireless
networks may only experience performance degradation, the energy loss
(due to collisions and retransmissions) can result in network partition.
Thus, congestion control algorithms may need to be tuned for immediate
response and yet avoid oscillations of data rate along the affected path.
Packet Re-ordering Due to Multi-Path

Multiple paths may exist between a given source-sink pair, and the order of
packet delivery is strongly influenced by the characteristics of the route cho-
sen. As an additional challenge, in real-time video/ audio feeds or streaming
media, information that cannot be used in the proper sequence becomes
redundant, thus stressing on the need for transport layer packet reordering.
TCP/UDPand TCP-Friendly Schemes for WMSNs

For real-time applications like streaming media, the User Datagram
Protocol (UDP) is preferred over TCP as timelines s is of greater concern
than reliability. However, in WMSNs, it is expected that packets are sig-
nificantly compressed at the source and redundancy is reduced as far as
possible owing to the high transmission overhead in the energy constrained
nodes. Under these conditions, the following are important characteris-
tics that may necessitate an approach very different from classical wireless
networks.
a) Effect of dropping packets in UDP
Simply dropping packets during congestion conditions, as undertaken in
UDP, may introduce discernable disruptions in the order of a fraction of
a second. This effect is even more pronounced if the packet dropped con-
tains important original content not captured by inter-frame interpolation,
like the Region of Interest (ROI) feature used in JPEG2000 or the I-frame
used in the MPEG family.
b) Support for traffic heterogeneity

Multimedia traffic comprising video, audio, and still images exhibits a high
level of heterogeneity and may be further classified into periodic or event
driven. The UDP header has no provision to allow any description of these
traffic classes that may influence congestion control policies. As a contrast
to this, the options field in the TCP header can be modified to carry data-
specific information.
c) Effect of jitter induced by TCP
A key factor that limits multimedia transport based on TCP, and TCP-like
rate control schemes, is the jitter introduced by the congestion control
mechanism. This can be, however, mitigated to a large extent by playout
buffers at the sink, which is typically assumed to be rich in resources.
d) Overhead of the reliability mechanism in TCP
Blind dropping of packets in UDP containing highly compressed video/
audio data may adversely affect the quality of transmission. Yet, at the same
time, the reliability mechanism provided by TCP introduces an end-to-end
message passing overhead and energy efficiency must also be considered.
Distributed TCP Caching (DTC) overcomes these problems by caching
TCP segments inside the sensor network and by local retransmission of
TCP segments. The nodes closest to the sink are the last-hop forwarders on
most of the high-rate data paths and thus run out of energy first. DTC shifts
the burden of the energy consumption from nodes close to the sink into the
network, apart from reducing network-wide retransmissions.
e) Regulating streaming through multiple TCP connections
The availability of multiple paths between source and sink can be exploited
by opening multiple TCP connections for multimedia traffic. Here, the
desired streaming rate and the allowed throughput reduction in the pres-
ence of bursty traffic, like sending of video data, is communicated to the
receiver by the sender. This information is used by the receiver, which then
measures the actual throughput and controls the rate within the allowed
bounds by using multiple TCP connections and dynamically changing its
TCP window size for each connection.
Application-Specific and Non-Standard Protocols

Depending on the application, both reliability and congestion control may
be equally important functionalities, or one may be preferred over the other.
a) Reliability
Multimedia streams may consist of images, video, and audio data, each of
which merits a different metric for reliability. When an image or video is
sent with differentially coded packets, the arrival of the packets with the
ROI field or the I-frame respectively should be guaranteed. The appli-
cation can, however, withstand moderate loss for the other packets con-
taining differential information. Thus, we believe that reliability needs
to be enforced on a per-packet basis to best utilize the existing network-
ing resources. If a prior recorded video is being sent to the sink, all the
I-frames could be separated and the transport protocol should ensure that
each of these reach the sink. Reliable Multi-Segment Transport (RMST)
or the Pump Slowly Fetch Quickly (PSFQ) protocol can be used for this
purpose as they buffer packets at intermediate nodes, allowing for faster
retransmission in case of packet loss. However, there is an overhead of
using the limited buffer space at a given sensor node for caching packets
destined for other nodes, as well as performing timely storage and flushing
operations on the buffer.
b) Congestion control
The high rate of injection of multimedia packets into the network causes
resources to be used up quickly. While typical transmission rates for sen-
sor nodes may be about 40 kbit/s, indicative data rates of a constant bit
rate voice traffic may be 64 kbit/s. Video traffic, on the other hand, may be
bursty and in the order of 500 kbit/s, thus making it clear that congestion
must be addressed in WMSNs.
c) Use of multi-path
The use of multiple paths for data transfer in WMSNs is necessary for the
following two reasons:
1. A large burst of data (say, resulting from an I-frame) can be split into
several smaller bursts, thus not overwhelming the limited buffers at
the intermediate sensor nodes.
2. The channel conditions may not permit high data rate for the entire
duration of the event being monitored. By allowing multiple flows, the
effective data rate at each path gets reduced and the application can
be supported.
8.7 Network Layer

The network layer addresses the challenging task of providing variable QoS
guarantees depending on whether the stream carries time-independent
data like configuration or initialization parameters, time-critical low rate
data like presence or absence of the sensed phenomenon, high bandwidth
video/audio data, and so forth. Each of the traffic classes has its own QoS
requirement which must be accommodated in the network layer.
Addressing and localization
In the case of large WMSNs, it is required that the individual nodes be
monitored via the Internet. Such an integration between a randomly
deployed sensor network and the established wired network becomes a
difficult research challenge. The key problem of global addressing could be
solved by the use of IPv6, in which the sensor can concatenate its cluster
ID with its own MAC address to create the full IPv6 address. However,
the 16-byte address field of IPv6 introduces excessive overhead in each
sensor data packet. There are several other schemes that assign unique
network-wide IDs or leverage location information to create an address
free environment, but they, however, run the risk of incompatibility
with the established standards of the Internet. Location information is a
key characteristic of any sensor network system. The ability to associate
localization information with the raw data sampled from the environment
increases the capability of the system and the meaningfulness of the
information extracted. Localization techniques for WMSNs are unlikely to
differ substantially from those developed for traditional sensor networks.
Moreover, WMSNs will most likely leverage the accurate ranging capabilities
that come with high bandwidth transmissions.
Routing
Data collected by the sensor nodes needs to be sent to the sink, where use-
ful information can be extracted from it. As an example, multiple routes
may be necessary to satisfy the desired data rate at the destination node.
Also, different paths exhibiting varying channel conditions may be pre-
ferred depending on the type of traffic and its resilience to packet loss.
In general, they can be classified into routing based on (i) network condi-
tions that leverage channel and link statistics, (ii) traffic classes that decide
paths based on packet priorities, and (iii) specialized protocols for real-time
streaming that use spatiotemporal forwarding.
QoS routing based on network conditions

Network conditions include interference seen at intermediate hops, the
number of backlogged flows along a path, residual energy of the nodes,
among others. A routing decision based on these metrics can avoid paths that
may not support high bandwidth applications or introduce retransmission
owing to bad channel conditions. The use of image sensors is used to gather
topology information that is then leveraged to develop efficient geographic
routing schemes. A weighted cost function is constructed that takes into
account position with respect to the base station, backlogged packets in the
queue, and remaining energy of the nodes to decide the next hop along a
route. This approach involves an overhead in which nodes must apprise
their neighbors of any changes in the cost function parameters. This work
also deals with relative priority levels for event-based (high bandwidth)
and periodic (low bandwidth) data. The protocol finds a least-cost, energy-
efficient path while considering maximum allowed delays.
QoS routing based on traffic classes

Sensor data may originate from various types of events that have different
levels of importance. Consequently, the content and nature of the sensed
data also varies. As an example that highlights the need for network-level
QoS, consider the task of bandwidth assignment for multimedia mobile med-
ical calls, which include patients’ sensing data, voice, pictures, and video data.
Unlike the typical source-to-sink multi-hop communication used by classical
sensor networks, the proposed architecture uses a 3G cellular system in which
individual nodes forward the sensed data to a cellular phone or a specialized
information-collecting entity. Different priorities are assigned to video data
originating from sensors on ambulances, audio traffic from elderly people,
and images returned by sensors placed on the body. In order to achieve
this, parameters like hand-off dropping rate (HDR), latency tolerance, and
desired amount of wireless effective bandwidth are taken into consideration.
Routing protocols with supportfor streaming

The SPEED protocol provides three types of real-time communication
services, namely, realtime unicast, real-time area-multicast and real-time
area-anycast. It uses geographical location for routing, and a key difference
with other schemes of this genre is its spatio-temporal character, that is, it
takes into account timely delivery of the packets. It is specifically tailored to
be a stateless, localized algorithm with minimal control overhead. End-to-end
soft real-time communication is achieved by maintaining a desired delivery

speed across the sensor network through a combination of feedback control
and non-deterministic geographic forwarding. As it works satisfactorily under
scarce resource conditions and can provide service differentiation, SPEED
takes the first step in addressing the concerns of realtime routing in WMSNs.
8.8 MAC Layer

Owing to the energy constraints of the small, battery-powered sensor nodes,
it is desirable that the medium access control (MAC) protocol enable reli-
able, error-free data transfer with minimum retransmissions while sup-
porting application-specific QoS requirements. Multimedia traffic, namely
audio, video, and still images, can be classified as separate service classes and
subjected to different policies of buffering, scheduling, and transmission.
It allows the allocation of greater importance to certain parts of the
image which can then be coded and transmitted over a better quality link
or on a priority basis. Especially relevant to systems for military surveillance
or fault monitoring, such application layer features could be leveraged by
the MAC by differentially treating the Region of Interest (ROI) packets.
Research efforts to provide MAC layer QoS can be classified mainly as:
1. Channel access policies,
2. Scheduling and buffer management, and
3. Error control.
The main causes of energy loss in sensor networks are attributed to packet
collisions and subsequent retransmissions, overhearing packets destined
for other nodes, and idle listening, a state in which the transceiver circuits
remain active even in the absence of data transfer.
Contention-based protocols
Most contention-based protocols have a single-radio architecture. They
alternate between sleep cycles (low-power modes with transceiver switched
off) and listen cycles (for channel contention and data transmission).
However, we believe that their applicability to multimedia transmission is
limited owing to the following reasons:
a) The primary concern in the protocols of this class is saving energy, and
this is accomplished at the cost of latency and by allowing throughput
degradation. A sophisticated duty cycle calculation based on permissible

end-to-end delay needs to be implemented, and coordinating overlap-
ping listening period with neighbors based on this calculation is a difficult
research challenge.
b) Coordinating the sleep–awake cycles between neighbors is generally

accomplished though schedule exchanges. In case of dynamic duty cycles
based on perceived values of instantaneous or time averaged end-to-end
latency, the overhead of passing frequent schedules also needs investigation
in light of the ongoing high data rate video/audio messaging.
c) Video traffic exhibits an inherent bursty nature and can lead to sudden
buffer overflow at the receiver. This problem is further aggravated by the
transmission policy adopted in T-MAC.
By choosing to send a burst of data during the listen cycle, T-MAC
shows performance improvement over S-MAC, but at the cost of monopo-
lizing a bottleneck node. Such an operation could well lead to strong jitters
and result in discontinuous real-time playback.
Contention-free single channel protocols
Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) is a representative protocol of this
class in which the clusterhead (CH) or sink helps in slot assignment, query-
ing particular sensors and maintaining time schedules.
TDMA schemes designed exclusively for sensor networks have a small
reservation period (RP) that is generally contention based, followed by
a contention-free period that spans the rest of the frame. This RP could
occur in each frame or at pre-decided intervals in order to assign slots to
active nodes, taking into consideration the QoS requirement of their data
streams. The length of the TDMA frames and the frequency of the RP
interval are some of the design parameters that can be exploited while
designing a multimedia system. For real-time streaming video, packets are
time constrained and scheduling policies like Shortest Time to Extinction
(STE) or Earliest Due Date (EDD) can be adopted. Both of these are
similar in principle as packets are sent in the increasing order of their
respective delay tolerance but differ in respect that EDD may still forward
a packet that has crossed its allowed delay bound. Based on the allowed
packet loss of the multimedia stream, the dependencies between packet
dropping rate, arrival rate, and delay tolerance can be used to decide the
TDMA frame structure and thus ensure smooth replay of data. This allows
greater design choices as against, where the frame lengths and slot duration
are considered constant.
As sensor nodes are often limited by their maximum data transmission
rate, depending upon their multimedia traffic class, the duration of trans-
mission could be made variable. Thus variable TDMA (V-TDMA) schemes
should be preferred when heterogeneous traffic is present in the network.
Tools for calculating the minimum worst-case delay in such schemes and
algorithms for link scheduling are provided. As real-time streaming media
is delay bounded, the link-layer latency introduced in a given flow in order
to satisfy data rate requirements of another flow needs to be analyzed well
when VTDMA schemes are used.
MIMO technology
The high data rate required by multimedia applications can be addressed
by spatial multiplexing in MIMO systems that use a single channel but
employ interference cancellation techniques. Recently, virtual MIMO
schemes have been proposed for sensor networks, where nodes in close
proximity form a cluster. Each sensor functions as a single antenna
element, sharing information and thus simulating the operation of a
multiple antenna array. A distributed compression scheme for correlated
sensor data that specially addresses multimedia requirements is integrated
into the MIMO framework. However, a key consideration in MIMO-
based systems is the number of sensor transmissions and the required
signal energy per transmission. As the complexity is shifted from hardware
to sensor coordination, further research is needed at the MAC layer to
ensure that the required MIMO parameters like channel state and desired
diversity/processing gain are known to both the sender and receiver at an
acceptable energy cost.
Contention-Free Multi-Channel Protocols
Along with improving hardware and thus increasing cost, an alternate
approach is to efficiently utilize the available bandwidth. By using multiple
channels in a spatially overlapped manner, existing bandwidth can be
efficiently utilized for supporting multimedia applications.
Scheduling
MAC layer scheduling in the context of WMSNs differs from the traditional
networking model in the sense that apart from choosing the queue discipline
that accounts for latency bounds, rate/power control and consideration of
high channel error conditions need to be incorporated. An optimal solution

is a function of all of these factors, appropriately weighted and seamlessly
integrated with a suitable channel access policy.
Queues at the MAC layer have been extensively researched, and several
schemes with varying levels of complexity exist. Of interest to multimedia
applications is the development of schemes that allow a delay bound and
thus assure smooth streaming of multimedia content. Depending upon the
current residual energy in the network, it is possible to adapt the scheme
for greater energy savings, albeit at the cost of a small, bounded increase in
worst-case packet latency.
Current network calculus results have been mostly derived for wired
networks, and assume static topologies and fixed link capacity, which are
clearly unreasonable assumptions in sensor networks. Extending network
calculus results to WMSNs is a challenging but promising research thrust,
likely to produce important advancements in the ability to provide provable
QoS guarantees in multi-hop networks.
Multimedia Packet Size

In wireless networks, the successful reception of a packet depends upon
environmental factors that decide the bit error rate (BER) of the link. Packet
length clearly has a bearing on reliable link-level communication and may
be adjusted according to application delay sensitivity requirements. The
Dynamic Packet Size Mechanism (DPSM) scheme for wireless networks
follows an additive increase, multiplicative decrease (AIMD) mechanism
to decide the packet length, analogous to the congestion control performed
by TCP at the transport layer. As an example, if a packet fails the checksum,
the sender is intimated and the subsequent packets are sent with a multi-
plicative decrease in length.
Grouping smaller packets together in order to reduce conten-
tion has been explored in Packet Frame Grouping (PFG) and PAcket
Concatenation (PAC). Originally devised for 802.11-like protocols, here
the header overhead is shared by the frames. In PFG, the individual
frames may be addressed to different senders and require per-frame
ACKs while PAC requires buffering, as all frames need to have a common
destination.
Depending upon the information content of the frame and the channel
conditions, variable length forward error-correcting codes (FEC) can
be used to reduce the effects of transmission errors at the decoder. The
trade-off between the increase of packet length due to the additional parity
bits and energy constraints is evaluated, where FEC is shown to perform
better than retransmissions.
8.9 Physical Layer

The ultra wide band (UWB) technology has the potential to enable low-
power consumption and high data rate communications within tens of
meters, characteristics that make it an ideal choice for WMSNs. UWB
signals have been used for several decades in the radar community
Although UWB signals, as per the specifications of the Federal
Communications Commission (FCC), use the spectrum from 3.1 GHz to
10.6 GHz with appropriate interference limitation, UWB devices can oper-
ate using the spectrum occupied by existing radio services without caus-
ing interference, thereby permitting scarce spectrum resources to be used
more efficiently. Instead of dividing the spectrum into distinct bands that
are then allocated to specific services, UWB devices are allowed to operate
overlaid and thus interfere with existing services, at a low enough power
level that existing services would not experience performance degradation.
There exist two main variants of UWB. The first, known as Time-
Hopping Impulse Radio UWB (TH-IR-UWB), is based on sending very
short duration pulses (in the order of hundreds of picoseconds) to convey
information. Time is divided into frames, each of which is composed of
several chips of very short duration. Each sender transmits one pulse in a
chip per frame only, and multi-user access is provided by pseudo-random
time hopping sequences (THS) that determine in which chip each user
should transmit. A different approach, known as Multi-Carrier UWB
(MC-UWB), uses multiple simultaneous carriers, and is usually based on
Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM).
MC-UWB is particularly well suited for avoiding interference because its
carrier frequencies can be precisely chosen to avoid narrowband interference
to or from narrowband systems. However, implementing a MC-UWB front-
end power amplifier can be challenging due to the continuous variations in
power over a very wide bandwidth. Moreover, when OFDM is used, high-
speed FFT processing is necessary, which requires significant processing
power and leads to complex transceivers. TH-IR-UWB signals require
fast switching times for the transmitter and receiver and highly precise
synchronization. Transient properties become important in the design of the
radio and antenna. The high instantaneous power during the brief interval
of the pulse helps to overcome interference to UWB systems, but increases

the possibility of interference from UWB to narrowband systems. The RF
front-end of a TH-IR-UWB system may resemble a digital circuit, thus
circumventing many of the problems associated with mixed signal integrated
circuits. Simple TH-IR-UWB systems can be very inexpensive to construct.
The TH-IRUWB is particularly helpful and useful for WMSNs for the
following reasons:
• It enables high data rate, very low-power wireless communications,
on simple-design, low-cost radios (carrier less, baseband
communications).
• Its fine delay resolution properties are appropriate for wireless
communications in dense multipath environments, by exploiting more
resolvable paths.
• Provides large processing gain in presence of interference.
• Provides flexibility, as data rate can be traded or power spectral
density and multi-path performance.
• Finding suitable codes for THS is trivial (as opposed to CDMA
codes), and no assignment protocol is necessary.
• It naturally allows for integrated MAC/PHY solutions; moreover,
interference mitigation techniques allow realizing MAC protocols
that do not require mutual temporal exclusion between different
transmitters. In other words, simultaneous communications of
neighboring devices are feasible without complex receivers as required
by CDMA.
• The large instantaneous bandwidth enables fine time resolution
for accurate position estimation and for network time distribution
(synchronization).
• UWB signals have extremely low-power spectral density, with low
probability of intercept/detection (LPI/D), which is particularly
appealing for military covert operations.
8.10 Cross-Layer Design

In multi-hop wireless networks there is a strict interdependence among
functions handled at all layers of the communication stack. The physical,
MAC, and routing layers together impact the contention for network
resources. The physical layer has a direct impact on multiple access of
nodes in wireless channels by affecting the interference at the receivers.
The MAC layer determines the bandwidth allocated to each transmitter,
which naturally affects the performance of the physical layer in terms of
successfully detecting the desired signals. On the other hand, as a result
of transmission schedules, high packet delays and/or low bandwidth can
occur, forcing the routing layer to change its route decisions. Different rout-
ing decisions alter the set of links to be scheduled, and thereby influence
the performance of the MAC layer. Moreover, specifically for multimedia
transmissions, the application layer does not require full insulation from
lower layers, but needs instead to perform source coding based on infor-
mation from the lower layers to maximize the multimedia performance.
Existing solutions often do not provide adequate support for multimedia
applications since the resource management, adaptation, and protection
strategies available in the lower layers of the stack are optimized without
explicitly considering the specific characteristics of multimedia applica-
tions. Similarly, multimedia compression and streaming algorithms do not
consider the mechanisms provided by the lower layers for error protection
and resource allocation.
Most of the existing studies decompose the resource allocation prob-
lem at different layers, and consider allocation of the resources at each layer
separately. In most cases, resource allocation problems are treated either
heuristically, or without considering cross-layer interdependencies, or by
considering pair-wise interactions between isolated pairs of layers.
The cross-layer transmission of multimedia content over wireless
networks is formalized as an optimization problem. Several different
approaches for cross-layer design of multimedia communications are dis-
cussed, including the bottom-up approach, where the lower layers try to
insulate the higher layers from losses and channel capacity variations, and
top-down, where the higher layer protocols optimize their parameters at
the next lower layer. However, only single-hop networks are considered.
In particular, the improvements of adaptive link layer techniques such as
adaptive modulation and packet size optimization, joint allocation of capacity
and flows (i.e., MAC and routing), and joint scheduling and rate allocation are
discussed. While still maintaining a strict layered architecture, it is shown how
these cross-layer optimizations help improve the spectral efficiency at the
physical layer and the peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR) of the video stream
perceived by the user. Clearly, energy constrained multimedia sensors may
need to leverage cross-layer interactions one step further. At the same time,
optimization metrics in the energy domain need to be considered as well.
Crosslayer design is based on the following principles:
Network Layer QoS Support Enforced by a Crosslayer Controller

The proposed system provides QoS support at the network layer, that is,
it provides packet-level service differentiation in terms of throughput,
end-to-end packet error rate, and delay. This is achieved by controlling
operations and interactions of functionalities at the physical, MAC, and
network layers, based on a unified logic that resides on a cross-layer
controller that manages resource allocation, adaptation, and protection
strategies based on the state of each functional block. The objective of the
controller is to optimize some objective function, that is, minimize energy
consumption, while guaranteeing QoS requirements to application flows.
While all decisions are jointly taken at the controller, implementation of
different functionalities is kept separate for ease of design and upgradeability.
UWB Physical/MAC Layer

The communication architecture is based on an integrated TH-IRUWB
MAC and physical layer. Similarly to CDMA, TH-IR-UWB allows several
transmissions in parallel. Conversely, typical MAC protocols for sensor net-
works, such as contention-based protocols based on CSMA/CA, require
mutual temporal exclusion between neighboring transmitters. This allows
devising MAC protocols with minimal coordination. While CDMA usually
entails complex transceivers and cumbersome code assignment protocols,
this is achievable with simple transceivers in TH-IR-UWB.
Receiver-Centric Scheduling for QoS Traffic

One of the major problems in multi-hop wireless environments is that
channel and interference vary with the physical location of devices. For this
reason, QoS provisioning should be based on receiver-centric scheduling of
packets. This way, the receiver can easily estimate the state of the medium
at its side. Thus, it can optimally handle loss recovery and rate adaptation,
thereby avoiding feedback overheads and latency, and be responsive to the
dynamics of the wireless link using the information obtained locally.
Dynamic Channel Coding

Adaptation to interference at the receiver is achieved through dynamic
channel coding, which can be seen as an alternative form of power control,
as it modulates the energy per bit according to the interference perceived

at the receiver.
Geographical Forwarding
We leverage UWB’s positioning capabilities to allow scalable geographi-
cal routing. The routing paths are selected by the cross-layer controller by
applying an admission control procedure that verifies that each node on
the path be able to provide the required service level. The required packet
error rate and maximum allowed delay are calculated at each step based on
the relative advance of each hop toward the destination.
Hop-by-Hop QoS Contracts

End-to-end QoS requirements are guaranteed by means of local decision.
Each single device that participates in the communication process is
responsible for locally guaranteeing given performance objectives. The
global, end-to-end requirement is enforced by the joint local behaviors of
the participating devices.
Multi-Rate Transmission
TH-IR-UWB allows varying the data rate at the physical layer by modify-
ing the pulse repetition period. While this functionality has not been fully
explored so far, it is possible to devise adaptive systems that modify the
achievable data rate at the physical layer based on the perceived interfer-
ence and on the required power consumption.
8.11 Wireless Video Sensor Networks

Figures 8.2 and 8.3 describe hardware and software architecture for
sensor networks and video networks. The hardware architecture consists
of database servers that collect and store sensing and video data by regional
groups, backup database servers, control servers, GIS servers, and web
servers. The integrated control system comprises the integrated database
server to consolidate local databases, the integrated GIS server, and the
integrated web server. The local control system also interoperates with the
databases that belong to other regions.
In Figure 8.2, sensor networks that adopt an IP-WSN to fulfill a global
WSN and techniques to easily interoperate with existing CCTVs may be
standardized for better support of integrated monitoring. The software

architecture shows software required for sensor networks and camera
networks and for the integrated control system and local servers.
Integration control server
Integration
GIS server Integration
web server
Integration backup server Integration DB server
web server
Streaming
Server
Control
Backup GIS server server
DB Video
server backup
Sensing server Video
DB collection
server BS(G/W) server
sensor sensor sensor

network 1 network 2 network 3
Network camera Network camera Network camera
GW network 1 GW network 2 GW network 3
FIGURE 8.2 Hardware architecture for sensor networks and video networks.
Gateways and sensor nodes are necessary to build the sensor networks and
gateways, and network cameras are required to form camera networks.
Moreover, the integrated control server, streaming servers, web servers,
database servers, and GIS servers are necessary for the integrated control
system and local servers.
This software architecture of Figure 8.3 shows software required in
two parts: the integrated control server and the sensor network including
the network camera. The integrated control server mainly uses desktop
PCs and workstation PCs, so that there is hardly a limitation on these kinds
of software. That is, it is easy to implement, install, and use. Therefore,
software blocks mentioned previously are essential components for
integrated monitoring. The sensor network, however, is different from
the integrated control flow. Because most of its hardware is an embedded
device based on ARM, MSP, and Atmel, its software has limitations.
Specifically, software lively is very important for seamless services. Also,

additional software may be demanded because a variety of applications
utilizing sensing data and video information from network cameras may
appear in the future.
Integrated Control System

Integrated Control Sensor Streaming Web DB GIS
server server server server
State Control Processing Image JSP,SHP, GIS
display S/W S/W processing S/W PHP DBMS engine
Image Network Device Streaming Web DB Backup
Processing Manage Control S/W S/W middleware agent
S/W ment S/W
Backup Backup Backup Backup
agent agent agent agent
OS(Linux)
OS(Linux) OS(Linux) OS(Linux) OS(Linux)
Network Network TCP/ TCP/IP
composition S/W TCP/IP S/W IP TCP/IP TCP/IP
Sensor Network / Network Camera
Gateway / sink node Sensor node Camera
Sensing data processing S/W Image processing S/W
OS Sensor application Backup agent
Network
TCP/IP Sensor OS OS(Linux)
composition S/W
RF comm. protocol RF comm. protocol TCP/IP
FIGURE 8.3 Software architecture for sensor networks and video networks.
8.12 Three-Tier Architecture of Video Sensor Networks

Hardware Architecture
The hardware architecture is shown in Figure 8.4. It consists of three
tiers. Tier 1 has lower-power camera sensors (Cyclop or CMUcam) and
a low-power sensor platform (Mote). Tier 2 has webcams (Logitech), a
sensor platform (Intel Stargate) and a low-power wakeup circuit (Mote).
Tier 3 has a high-performance PZT camera and a mini-ITX embedded PC
(Sony).
Video Stream
Tier 3 hand off

Webcam +
stargate
wake up
Tier 2
Cmucam +
Mote
wake up
Tier 1
Vibration
sensors +
Mote
FIGURE 8.4 Three-tier architecture of video sensor networks.
Figure 8.5 shows multi-tier hardware architecture and Figure 8.6 shows
software architecture.
Benefits of a multi-tier network:
• Reduces power consumption
• Achieves similar performance of single-tier network
• Low cost
• High coverage
• High reliability
• High functionality
PTZ Camera
Mini - ITX Ethernet
Tier3
Webcam Webcam
USB
Stargate Stargate
Mote Mote
Tier2
Tier1
Radio
Mote Mote Mote Mote
Serial
Cable
Cmucam Cmucam Cmucam Cmucam
FIGURE 8.5 Multitier hardware architecture.
Object Object Output

Input image Object
Detection Tracking Video
Stream Recognition
Stream
Frame Boundary Trajectory
Differencing SensEye
Detection Prediction Application
Motion Similarity Tracking
Detection analysis & Handoff
Cumcam + Webcam + PTZ camera + SensEye

Mote Stargate mini-ITX Hardware
Setup
Tier1 Tier2 Tier3
FIGURE 8.6 Multitier software architecture.
8.13 A Wireless Video Sensor Network for Autonomous Coastal

Sensing
Video is an important medium for the observation of a variety of phenomena
in the physical world. For example, in the coastal setting cameras can be used
to monitor sea state including wave height and period, evaluate land erosion,
and observe a variety of animal species. One of the severe limitations in
deploying video cameras in these settings is their cost; in addition to sensing
and processing electronics, they must be enclosed in weatherproof housings,
provided with a source of energy, and, if live remote access is desired, must
be supported by wired or wireless telemetry. Indeed, high-cost cameras

limit the deployment to just a few camera nodes, thus greatly restricting the
potential for broad coverage of the coastal environment. Conversely, if a low-
cost camera and telemetry capability can be created, then the opportunity to
create wide-area or high-density visual sensing scenarios arises. To eliminate
wiring for power and communication, low-power electronics and wireless
communications techniques are used. The benefit of many cameras yields
fantastic area coverage but exposes the communication system to extreme
overload if all cameras are expected to deliver continuous live video streams.
However, by embedding intelligence into the collection of video sensors
(the video sensor network), one can put limits on the number of features of
interest that can be delivered simultaneously to a remote observer.
Coastal Sensing: A Target Deployment

A video sensor network (VSN) is best represented schematically as a grid
as in Figure 8.7. In this illustration cameras are assumed to be panoramic
and thus capable of a 360-degree field of view (FOV). Depending on the
camera visual range, resolution, and the targets of interest, the individual
cameras can be arranged more deliberately. For example, for the study
of nesting shore birds (e.g., Piping Plovers), one might deploy the units
densely in a swath above the intertidal zone but below areas of dense beach
grass. The resulting configuration continues to be mesh of irregular dimen-
sions. Similarly, using cameras to identify marine mammal standings or to
monitor populations of seals is enabled by long strings of cameras spaced to
maximize shore coverage.
Video
nodes
RF Links
Gateway
FIGURE 8.7 Video Sensing Application (gray seals); VSN grid schematic.
A network of these cameras would operate as follows. Each camera

operates autonomously, but with similar instructions: wake up periodically
and sample the image in the field of view.
Compare the image with prior recordings and determine any changes.
If there are none, go back to sleep to conserve energy. Otherwise, perform
more advanced video processing to determine if the change in the image
represents a target of interest (e.g., a stranded marine mammal). If a target
is detected, the camera notifies a gateway to initiate telemetry and/or
recording of the target. Neighboring units participate in routing live video
from the source camera to the gateway for observation by a human. This is
a representative application.
Design of a Video Sensor Node Platform

The general requirements of the video camera unit, or video node (VN
Figure 8.8) are listed as follow:
Wireless
The VN must be deployable in remote unattended locations without access
to wiring infrastructure. This implies operation on batteries and/or environ-
mental energy harvesting. Data logging must be performed in the system or
communicated out of the system to a gateway or to the Internet.
Broad Visual Field of View
To maximize utility, each VN should have a flexible directionality and zoom.
Ideally, the field of view is matched to the range of the wireless communica-
tion used (e.g., a FOV supporting ranges from 0–100 m corresponding to
the RF range of 802. lib).
Variable-Resolution Imagery
The VN should support sub-sampling in both temporal and spatial dimensions
to vary the volume of data generated.
Capable of Streaming Video to a Gateway
An important goal is to deliver full video streaming to an end-user once an
event or object of interest has been identified.
Infrequent Maintenance
Access to remote locations is inconvenient and potentially costly. The system
must operate without need for service for long periods. For example, to
study breeding birds can require installation without service for several
months. Services to minimize include battery replacement, lens cleaning,
data download (if not performed in real time). This requirement puts
difficult constraints on the energy used by the camera, communications,
and microcontroller (MCU).
Weatherproof and Low Impact

The mechanical enclosure including the energy harvester (solar panel)
must be robust to survive in the harsh coastal environment. It must also
be non-invasive with respect to studied phenomena and must not cause
significant harm to the environment in which it is installed.
Inexpensive
The VNs must be designed for low cost when produced in quantity.
The components of this VN and the motivations for the selection of
components are described as follow.
Camera Optics
To achieve a wide field of view we will use a catadioptric configuration using
an omni directional mirror fabricated to yield a panoramic image. This
approach eliminates the moving parts of most pan-tilt-zoom configurations,
reduces corresponding energy use, and reduces directionality challenges.
32 bit Hi-Res CMOS Lens

RF/ Camera chip
Optical CPU
Radio(s) Power
Video
control Power Encoder
Flash control
Memory Solar battery
(GB) Controller
FIGURE 8.8 Major components of our Video Node design.
Image Sensor
Advances in single-chip cameras based on CMOS technology have led to
the ubiquity of camera phones. Selection of a 3–5M pixel CMOS chip may
provide flexible temporal and spatial sampling, and low active current.
MCU and Data Storage

There are many options here. Specific desirable options are: very low sleep
current for periods of inactivity, multimedia instruction sets (for image
manipulation), 32-bit architecture, programmable clock rate, and access to
large amounts of flash memory.
Communications and Networking
Two modes of communication are anticipated. They are inter-VN com-
munication and Multi-hop communications. The inter-VN communication
supports collaborative processing and target tracking, and video streaming
is achieved via multihop communications to the gateway. The former is
suitable for low power, low-data rate technologies such as 802.15.4, whereas
the latter is appropriate for intermittent WTFi (802.1 la,b,g) or other tech-
nologies (e.g., optical or IR). Each will be under power control to minimize
communication energy costs.
Energy Harvesting and Control

The energy required for video sourcing and streaming is approximately
2500mW for the Axis camera. The energy harvesting unit, a solar panel and
a super capacitor bank, is sized to encompass a nominal load profile/duty
cycle of 5% over a 24-hour period, and an energy source model that can
tolerate up to 30% reduction in incident solar radiation. Thus the design is
one of daily energy input to super capacitors with conventional disposable
batteries to bridge periods of cloud cover.
Software Control
Software control includes image capture, processing, analysis, data
routing, and energy management. In order to support duty cycling of each
VN, robust image change detection algorithms will be developed on the
target platform. Particular attention will be applied to low-complexity
algorithms with minimal memory requirements (the so-called “fast and
lean” algorithms) because the available computing power and on-board
memory are severely limited. Since VNs are stationary, the algorithms will
be based on the concept of background subtraction. The background will
be statistically modeled over time and each new image will be tested against
this statistical model. For cameras with overlapping fields of view, inter-
node collaboration will be permitted by means of message passing (e.g.,
communicating partial change detection results). If a change is detected,
a video stream from the node will be transmitted to the gateway using
standard video compression techniques (e.g., MJPEG,MPEG-4,H-264).
Summary
• Wireless multimedia sensor network applications are multimedia
surveillance sensor networks, storage of potentially relevant activities,
traffic avoidance, advanced health care delivery, automated assistance
for the elderly monitors, environmental monitoring, person locator
services, and industrial process control.
• Factors influencing the design of WMSNs are application-specific QoS
requirements, high bandwidth demand, multimedia source coding
techniques, multimedia in-network processing, power consumption,
flexible architecture to support heterogeneous applications,
multimedia coverage, and integration with IP architecture and with
other wireless technologies.
• Computer vision is a subfield of AI, whose purpose is to allow
computer to extract features from an image or multidimensional data.
• Application layer services are traffic management, source code to
application requirements, efficient system software, and advanced
in-network multimedia processing techniques.
• The transport layer is for congestion avoidance and packet reordering
due to multipath.
• The network layer is for addressing and routing.
• The MAC layer is for channel access policies, scheduling, buffer
management, and error control.
• Ultra Wide Band technology is used in WMSNs.
Questions
1. What do you mean by wireless multimedia sensor networks? List
their applications.
2. What are the factors influencing the design of multimedia sensor
networks?
3. Draw the reference network architecture of a WMSN. Explain each
block in detail.
4. Write about WMSNs as distributed computer vision systems.
5. Write the functions of the application layer in detail.
6. List the services provided by the transport layer.

7. What are challenges of the network layer in WMSNs?
8. Explain about the design of the MAC layer for WMSNs.
9. Write a note on the physical layer for WMSNs.
10. What do you mean by cross-layer design in the case of WMSNs?
11. With a neat diagram, write about the hardware architecture for
Wireless Video Sensor Networks.
12. What are the software architecture requirements for sensor networks
and video networks?
13. Draw the hardware and software architecture for multi-tier networks.
Explain them.
14. What are the benefits of multi-tier networks?
15. Give the applications of WVSNs for autonomous coastal sensing.
16. Give the design requirements of a video sensor node.
Further Reading
1. Wireless Multimedia Sensor Networks on Reconfigurable Hardware:
Information Reduction Techniques by Li-minn Ang and Kah Phooi
Seng
2. Wireless Sensor Multimedia Networks: Architectures, Protocols, and
Applications by Mohamed Mostafa A. Azim and Xiaohong Jiang
References
http://bwn.ece.gatech.edu/surveys/multimedia.pdf
CHAPTER
9
MOBILE AD HOC
NETWORKS
This chapter discusses wireless ad hoc sensor networks, mobile ad hoc
networks, and vehicular ad hoc networks.
9.1 Wireless Ad Hoc Sensor Networks

Wireless communication enables information transfer among a network of
disconnected and often mobile users. Popular wireless networks such as
mobile phone networks and wireless LANs are traditionally infrastructure-
based, that is base stations, access points, and servers are deployed before
the network can be used. In contrast, ad hoc networks are dynamically
formed among a group of wireless users and require no existing infrastruc-
ture or pre-configuration. This is shown in Figure 9.1.
Infrastructure-based wireless network Ad hoc Network

FIGURE 9.1 Comparison of infrastructure wireless and ad hoc network.
The initial development of ad hoc networks was primarily driven by mili-

tary applications, where rapid network formation and survivability are key
requirements. Relying on a system centralized around base stations is simply

not an option because the base stations must first be deployed in the cor-
rect location (almost impossible in a hostile environment) and the network is
subject to failure if one or several base stations are destroyed. On the other
hand, a distributed network architecture, with all nodes having equal respon-
sibility and using broadcast radio, is ideally suited to military requirements.
To overcome the limited radio transmission ranges (i.e., not all nodes are
within the range of every other node), nodes are equipped with the ability to
forward information on behalf of others, that is, multi-hop communications.
Combined with packet switching technology (hence the term packet radio
networks, which is often used interchangeably with ad hoc networks; other
synonyms and related terms include: mobile ad hoc networks, wireless ad hoc
networks, self-organizing networks, multi-hop wireless networks and mesh
networks) and suitable medium access control protocols, multi-hop commu-
nication provides the basis for resilient, large-scale military ad hoc networks.
A wireless ad hoc sensor network consists of a number of sensors spread
across a geographical area. Each sensor has wireless communication capa-
bility and some level of intelligence for signal processing and networking of
the data. The dynamic and self-organizing nature of ad hoc networks makes
them particularly useful in situations where rapid network deployments are
required or it is prohibitively costly to deploy and manage network infra-
structure. Some example applications include:
• Attendees in a conference room sharing documents and other
information via their laptops and handheld computers;
• Armed forces creating a tactical network in unfamiliar territory for
communications and distribution of situational awareness information;
• Small sensor devices located in animals and other strategic locations
that collectively monitor habitats and environmental conditions;
• Emergency services communicating in a disaster area and sharing
video updates of specific locations among workers in the field and
back to headquarters;
• Military sensor networks to detect and gain as much information
as possible about enemy movements, explosions, and other
phenomena of interest;
• Sensor networks to detect and characterize Chemical, Biological,
Radiological, Nuclear, and Explosive (CBRNE) attacks and material;
Mobile Ad Hoc Networks • 289
• Sensor networks to detect and monitor environmental changes in

plains, forests, oceans, etc.;
• Wireless traffic sensor networks to monitor vehicle traffic on
highways or in congested parts of a city;
• Wireless surveillance sensor networks for providing security in
shopping malls, parking garages, and other facilities; and
• Wireless parking lot sensor networks to determine which spots are
occupied and which are free.
The previous list suggests that wireless ad hoc sensor networks offer
certain capabilities and enhancements in operational efficiency in civilian
applications as well as assist in the national effort to increase alertness to
potential terrorist threats.
Wireless ad hoc sensor networks are classified into two ways. They are
whether or not the nodes are individually addressable, and whether the
data in the network is aggregated. The sensor nodes in a parking lot net-
work should be individually addressable, so that one can determine the
locations of all the free spaces. This application shows that it may be neces-
sary to broadcast a message to all the nodes in the network. If one wants to
determine the temperature in a corner of a room, then addressability may
not be so important. Any node in the given region can respond. The ability
of the sensor network to aggregate the data collected can greatly reduce the
number of messages that need to be transmitted across the network.
The basic goals of a wireless ad hoc sensor network generally depend
upon the application, but the following tasks are common to many networks:
1. Determine the value of some parameter at a given location: In an environ-
mental network, one might want to know the temperature, atmospheric
pressure, amount of sunlight, and the relative humidity at a number of
locations. This example shows that a given sensor node may be con-
nected to different types of sensors, each with a different sampling rate
and range of allowed values.
2. Detect the occurrence of events of interest and estimate parameters of
the detected event or events: In the traffic sensor network, one would
like to detect a vehicle moving through an intersection and estimate the
speed and direction of the vehicle.
3. Classify a detected object: Is a vehicle in a traffic sensor network a car, a
mini-van, a light truck, a bus, etc.?
4. Track an object: In a military sensor network, track an enemy tank as it

moves through the geographic area covered by the network.
In these four tasks, an important requirement of the sensor network is
that the required data be disseminated to the proper end users. In some
cases, there are fairly strict time requirements on this communication. For
example, the detection of an intruder in a surveillance network should be
immediately communicated to the police so that action can be taken.
Wireless ad hoc sensor network requirements include the following:
1. Large number of (mostly stationary) sensors: Aside from the deploy-
ment of sensors on the ocean surface or the use of mobile, unmanned,
robotic sensors in military operations, most nodes in a smart sensor
network are stationary. Networks of 10,000 or even 100,000 nodes are
envisioned, so scalability is a major issue.
2. Low energy use: Since in many applications the sensor nodes will be
placed in a remote area, service of a node may not be possible. In this
case, the lifetime of a node may be determined by the battery life,
thereby requiring the minimization of energy expenditure.
3. Network self-organization: Given the large number of nodes and their
potential placement in hostile locations, it is essential that the network
be able to self-organize; manual configuration is not feasible. Moreover,
nodes may fail (either from lack of energy or from physical destruction),
and new nodes may join the network. Therefore, the network must be
able to periodically reconfigure itself so that it can continue to function.
Individual nodes may become disconnected from the rest of the net-
work, but a high degree of connectivity must be maintained.
4. Collaborative signal processing: To improve the detection/estimation
performance, it is often quite useful to fuse data from multiple sen-
sors. This data fusion requires the transmission of data and control
messages, and so it may put constraints on the network architecture.
5. Querying ability: A user may want to query an individual node or a
group of nodes for information collected in the region. Depending on
the amount of data fusion performed, it may not be feasible to transmit
a large amount of the data across the network. Instead, various local
sink nodes will collect the data from a given area and create summary
messages. A query may be directed to the sink node nearest to the
desired location.
In the wireless ad hoc sensor networks, each node may be equipped

with a variety of sensors, such as acoustic, seismic, infrared, still/motion
video camera, and so forth. These nodes may be organized in clusters such
that a locally occurring event can be detected by most, if not all, of the
nodes in a cluster. Each node may have sufficient processing power to make
a decision, and it will be able to broadcast this decision to the other nodes in
the cluster. One node may act as the cluster master, and it may also contain
a longer range radio using a protocol such as IEEE 802.11 or Bluetooth.
9.2 Mobile Ad Hoc Networks (MANET)

An Ad hoc network is a collection of mobile nodes which forms a temporary
network without the aid of centralized administration or standard support
devices regularly available as conventional networks. These nodes generally
have a limited transmission range, so each node seeks the assistance of its
neighboring nodes in forwarding packets, and hence the nodes in an ad hoc
network can act as both routers and hosts. Thus, a node may forward packets
between other nodes as well as run user applications. By nature these types
of networks are suitable for situations where either no fixed infrastructure
exists or deploying a network is not possible. The mobile ad hoc networks
have found many applications in various fields like military, emergency, con-
ferencing, and sensor networks. Each of these application areas has its specific
requirements for routing protocols. The mobile ad hoc network has the fol-
lowing features:
• Autonomous terminal
• Distributed operation
• Multi-hop routing
• Dynamic network topology
• Fluctuating link capacity
• Lightweight terminals
Autonomous Terminal
In MANET, each mobile terminal is an autonomous node, which may func-
tion as both a host and a router. In other words, besides the basic processing
ability as a host, the mobile nodes can also perform switching functions as a
router. So, usually endpoints and switches are indistinguishable in MANET.
Distributed Operation
Since there is no background network for the central control of the net-
work operations, the control and management of the network is distributed
among the terminals. The nodes involved in a MANET should collaborate
among themselves, and each node acts as a relay as needed to implement
functions like security and routing.
Multi-Hop Routing
Basic types of ad hoc routing algorithms can be single-hop and multi-hop,
based on different link layer attributes and routing protocols. Single-hop
MANET is simpler than multi-hop in terms of structure and implementation,
with the lesser cost of functionality and applicability. When delivering data
packets from a source to its destination out of the direct wireless transmission
range, the packets should be forwarded via one or more intermediate nodes.
Dynamic Network Topology

Since the nodes are mobile, the network topology may change rapidly and
unpredictably and the connectivity among the terminals may vary with
time. MANET should adapt to the traffic and propagation conditions as
well as the mobility patterns of the mobile network nodes. The mobile
nodes in the network dynamically establish routing among themselves as
they move about, forming their own network on the fly. Moreover, a user
in the MANET may not only operate within the ad hoc network, but may
require access to a public fixed network (e.g., Internet).
Fluctuating Link Capacity

The nature of high bit-error rates of wireless connections might be more
profound in a MANET. One end-to-end path can be shared by several ses-
sions. The channel over which the terminals communicate is subjected to
noise, fading, and interference, and has less bandwidth than a wired net-
work. In some scenarios, the path between any pair of users can traverse
multiple wireless links, and the link themselves can be heterogeneous.
Lightweight Terminals
In most of the cases, the MANET nodes are mobile devices with less CPU
processing capability, small memory size, and low power storage. Such
devices need optimized algorithms and mechanisms that implement the
computing and communicating functions.
Table 9.1 compares WSN and MANET.
Table 9.1 Comparison between WSN and MANET
Factors/Issues WSNs MANETs

Interaction Focus on interaction with the Close to humans, e.g., laptops,
environment PDAs, mobile radio terminals.
Nodes deployed Very large Not many
Population of nodes Densely populated Sparsely populated
Failure rate High Low
Communication Broadcast Point-to-point
Communication Short Long
range
Metrics Efficiency, resolution, latency, Receipt rate, dissemination,
scalability, robustness speed, redundancy
Power Limited Not an issue
Bandwidth deficient Sometimes Yes
Identification Not unique Unique ID by its MAC address
Memory Limited High
Fault tolerance Needed only if nodes exhaust Needed as mobility increases
available energy or are moved
Data redundancy Sometimes No
Routing protocols Flooding, Gossiping, flat Routing, Pro-active, Reactive, Hybrid
Hierarchical, Location based
Topology Dynamic Dynamic
Standards Zigbee, IEEE 802.15.4, ISA 100, IEEE802.11
IEEE 1451
Issues to be considered when deploying MANET

The following are some of the main routing issues to be considered when
deploying MANETs:
• Unpredictability of environment
• Unreliability of wireless medium
• Resource-constrained nodes
• Dynamic topology
• Transmission errors
• Node failures
• Link failures
• Route breakages
• Congested nodes or links
Unpredictability of environment
Ad hoc networks may be deployed in unknown terrains, hazardous con-
ditions, and even hostile environments where tampering or the actual
destruction of a node may be imminent. Depending on the environment,
node failures may occur frequently.
Unreliability of wireless medium

Communication through the wireless medium is unreliable and subject to
errors. Also, due to varying environmental conditions such as high levels of
electro-magnetic interference (EMI) or inclement weather, the quality of
the wireless link may be unpredictable.
Resource-constrained nodes
Nodes in a MANET are typically battery powered as well as limited in stor-
age and processing capabilities. Moreover, they may be situated in areas
where it is not possible to recharge and thus have limited lifespans. Because
of these limitations, they must have algorithms which are energy efficient
as well as operating with limited processing and memory resources. The
available bandwidth of the wireless medium may also be limited because
nodes may not be able to sacrifice the energy consumed by operating at full
link speed.
Dynamic topology
The topology in an ad hoc network may change constantly due to the mobil-
ity of nodes. As nodes move in and out of range of each other, some links
break while new links between nodes are created.
As a result of these issues, MANETs are prone to numerous types of
faults including the following:
Transmission errors
The unreliability of the wireless medium and the unpredictability of the envi-
ronment may lead to transmitted packets being garbled and thus with errors.
Node failures
Nodes may fail at any time due to different types of hazardous conditions in
the environment. They may also drop out of the network either voluntarily
or when their energy supply is depleted.
Link failures
Node failures as well as changing environmental conditions (e.g., increased
levels of EMI) may cause links between nodes to break. Link failures cause
the source node to discover new routes through other links.
Route Breakages
When the network topology changes due to node/link failures and/or node/
link additions to the network, routes become out-of-date and thus incor-
rect. Depending upon the network transport protocol, packets forwarded
through stale routes may either eventually be dropped or be delayed.
Congested Nodes or Links

Due to the topology of the network and the nature of the routing protocol,
certain nodes or links may become overutilized, that is, congested. This will
lead to either larger delays or packet loss.
9.3 Classification of Routing Protocols for MANETs

Ad hoc routing protocols can be categorized as table-driven or source initi-
ated. Table-driven or proactive routing protocols find routes to all possible
destinations ahead of time. The routes are recorded in the nodes’ routing
tables and are updated within the predefined intervals. Proactive routing pro-
tocols are faster in decision making, but cause problems if the topology of the
network continually changes. These protocols require every node to maintain
one or more tables to store updated routing information from every node to
all other nodes. Source-initiated, or reactive, routing protocols are on-demand
procedures and create routes only when requested to do so by source nodes.
A route request initiates a route-discovery process in the network and is com-

pleted once a route is discovered. If it exists, at the time of request, a route
is maintained by a route-maintenance procedure until either the destina-
tion node becomes irrelevant to the source or the route is no longer needed.
Control overhead of packets is smaller than that of proactive protocols.
Table Driven/Proactive
Destination sequenced distance vector [DSDV]
The DSDV is a table-driven-based routing algorithm. Each DSDV node
maintains two routing tables. They are a table for forwarding packets and a
table for advertising incremental updates. The nodes will maintain a rout-
ing table that consists of a sequence number. The routing table is periodi-
cally exchanged so that every node will have the latest information. DSDV
is suitable for small networks. The algorithm works as follows: a node or a
mobile device will make an update in its routing table and send the infor-
mation to its neighbor upon receiving the updated information and make
an update in its own routing table. The sequence number received is com-
pared with the present sequence number; if the new sequence number is
greater, then the new one will be used. A link failure in one of the nodes will
change the metric value to infinity and broadcast the message.
Cluster head gateway switch router [CGSR]
CGSR is also a table driven routing protocol. In this algorithm the mobile
devices will be grouped to form a cluster. The grouping is based on the
range, and each cluster is controlled by the cluster head. All the mobile
devices will maintain two tables, the cluster member table and the routing
table. The cluster member table will have the information about the clus-
ter head for each destination. The routing table will have routing informa-
tion. In this protocol the packet cannot be directly sent to the destination;
instead, cluster heads are used for routing. CGSR routing involves cluster
routing, where a node finds the best route over cluster heads from the clus-
ter member table.
Wireless routing protocol [WRP]
WRP is also based on a table driven approach. This protocol makes use of
four tables:
1. Distance table: Which contains information like destination, next hop,
distance
2. Routing table: Which contains routing information

3. Link cost table: Which contains cost information to each neighbor
4. Message retransmission list table: This table provides the sequence
number of the message, a retransmission counter, acknowledgements,
and list of updates sent in an update message
Whenever there is a change in the network, an update will be made,
which will be broadcasted to other nodes. Other nodes upon receiving the
updated information will make an update in their table. If there is no update
in the network, a hello message should be sent.
Source Initiated/Reactive Protocol
Dynamic source routing [DSR]
DSR is a source-initiated or on-demand routing protocol in which the
source finds an unexpired route to the destination to send the packet. It is used
in the network where mobile nodes move with moderate speed. Overhead is
significantly reduced, since nodes do not exchange routing table informa-
tion. It has two phases:
1. Route discovery
2. Route maintenance
The source which wants to send the information to the destination will
create a route request message by adding its own identification number
and broadcasts it in the network. The intermediate nodes will continue the
broadcast but will add their own identification numbers. When the destina-
tion is reached, a route reply message is generated which will be sent back
to the source. The source can receive multiple route replies indicating the
presence of multiple paths. The source will pick up one of the paths and will
use it for transmission. If there is a link failure, one of the nodes will detect it
and will create a route error message which will be sent back to the source;
in this case the path has to be reestablished for further transmission.
Associated based routing [ABR]
ABR is an efficient on-demand or source-initiated routing protocol. In ABR,
the destination node decides the best route, using node associativity. ABR
is suitable for small networks, as it provides fast route discovery and cre-
ates the shortest paths through associativity. Each node keeps track of asso-
ciativity information by sending messages periodically. If the associativity
value is more, it means node mobility is less. If the associativity value is less,
it means node mobility is more. In ABR, the source which wants to send
the packet to the destination will create a query packet and broadcast in
the network. Query packet generation is required for discovering the route.
The broadcast continues as long as destination is reached. Once the desti-
nation is reached, it creates the reply packet and sends back to the source.
The query packet will have the following information:
1. Source ID
2. Destination ID
3. All intermediate node IDs
4. Sequence number
5. CRC
6. Time to live [TTL]
A node sends an updated packet to the neighbors and waits for the
reply; if an update is received back, then the associative tick will be incre-
mented higher and it means the mobile device is still a part of the network;
otherwise it might not be.
Ad hoc on demand distance vector [AODV]
It is a source-initiated routing protocol in mobile ad hoc networks. The
algorithm consists of two phases:
1. Route discovery phase
2. Route maintenance phase
In the route discovery phase the path from source to destination is
identified by broadcasting a route request packet [RREQ]. When the inter-
mediate node receives the RREQ, it will create a backward pointer and
continue the broadcast. When the route request packet reaches the desti-
nation, a route reply would be generated [RREP]. The route reply will have
information about the path that can be chosen for the packet transmission.
The route request packet can have following information:
1. Source ID
2. Destination ID
3. Sequence number
4. Backward pointer information

5. CRC
6. Time to live [TTL]
In the previous network the RREQ will be broadcasted by source node
1 to its neighbor, and neighbors will check whether the RREQ is already
processed. If it is already processed, the packet will be discarded. If it is
not processed a backward pointer is created and the broadcast continues.
When the packet reaches the destination, a route reply is created [RREP]
in the previous network. The first RREP sent to the source can have the
path information as 1-2-4-6-8. When the source receives this information,
it will be stored in the routing table. Meanwhile, the destination can create
one more RREP, which can have the information as 1-3-7-8. The destina-
tion will send this RREP to the source and will also ask the source to discard
the old path as the new path has the minimum number of hops.
In the route-maintainence phase, the nodes in the network periodically
exchange hello messages to inform that they are still a part of the network
and the path is valid. Whenever there is a link failure detected, a route
error packet [RERR] will be sent to the source, indicating that the path is
no longer valid.
Temporary ordered routing algorithm [TORA]

It is also a source-initiated routing algorithm, which creates multiple routes
for any source/ destination pair. The advantage of multiple routes is that
route discovery is not required for every alteration in the network topology.
TORA consists of three phases:
1. Route creation/discovery
2. Route maintenance
3. Route erasure
TORA uses three types of packets. They are query packets for route
creation, and update packets for both creation and maintenance. The route
will be discovered from the source to destination only when a request
is made for the transmission. In this algorithm the source will generate
a query packet which will be broadcasted in the network. This continues
as long as anode that is directly connected to the destination is identified.
When the destination is identified, an update packet will be generated and
sent back to the source. The update packet will have the path information
if there is more than one update packet received by the source. It means
there are multiple paths to the destination, and the source has to choose the
best path available.
9.4 Security in Ad Hoc Networks

The following are the security threats in ad hoc networks:
1. Limited computational capabilities: The nodes in the mobile ad hoc net-
work are modular, independent, and will have limited computational
capability. It becomes a source of vulnerability when they handle pub-
lic key cryptography.
2. Limited power supply: Since nodes have limited power supply, an
attacker can exhaust batteries by giving excessive computations to be
carried out.
3. Challenging key management: The key management becomes extreme-
ly difficult as the mobile devices will be under movement.
Types of Attack in an Ad Hoc Network
The attack can be classified into two types. They are Passive and Active.
In a passive attack, the normal operation of a routing protocol is not
interrupted. The attacker just tries to gather the information. In an
active attack, the attacker can insert some arbitrary packets and there-
fore might affect the normal operation of the network. An attack can also
be one of the following types:
1. Pin attack: With the pin attack, an unauthorized node pretends to have
shortest path to the destination. The attacker can listen to the path setup
phase and become part of the network.
2. Location disclosure attack: By knowing the locations of intermediate
nodes, the attacker can find out the location of the target node.
3. Routing table overflow: The attacker can create some routes whose
destination does not exist. It will have a major impact on proactive
based-routing.
4. Energy exhaustion attack: The attacker tries to forward unwanted
packets or send unwanted requests, which can conserve the battery
of the nodes.
Criteria for a Secure Routing Protocol

The attack in an ad hoc network can be prevented by using a secure routing
protocol. It should have the following properties:
1. Authenticity: When a routing table is updated, it must verify whether
updates were provided by an authenticated node.
2. Integrity of information: When a routing table is updated, the informa-
tion must be verified whether it is modified or not.
3. In order updates: Sequence numbers or some mechanism must be
used to maintain updates in order.
4. Maximum update time: Updates in routing tables must be done as quick-
ly as possible.
5. Authorization: Only authorized nodes must be able to send updated
packets.
Security Criteria for Mobile Ad Hoc and Sensor Networks

The following are the widely used criteria to evaluate if the mobile ad hoc
network is secure:
1. Availability
The term availability means that a node should maintain its ability to
provide all the designed services regardless of its security state. This
security criterion is challenged mainly during denial-of-service attacks.
In this, all the nodes in the network can be the attack target, and thus,
some selfish nodes make some of the network services unavailable,
such as the routing protocol or the key management service.
2. Integrity
Integrity guarantees the identity of the messages when they are transmit-
ted. Integrity can be compromised mainly in two ways:
• Malicious altering
• Accidental altering
A message can be removed, replayed, or revised by an adversary with
a malicious goal, which is regarded as malicious altering; on the con-
trary, if the message is lost or its content is changed due to some be-
nign failures, which may be transmission errors in communication or
hardware errors such as a hard disk failure, then it is categorized as ac-

cidental altering.
3. Confidentiality
Confidentiality means that certain information is only accessible to
those who have been authorized to access it. In other words, in order
to maintain the confidentiality of some confidential information, we
need to keep it secret from all entities that do not have the privilege to
access them.
4. Authenticity
Authenticity is essentially assurance that participants in communica-
tion are genuine and not impersonators. It is necessary for the com-
munication participants to prove their identities as what they have
claimed using some techniques so as to ensure authenticity. If there
is not such an authentication mechanism, the adversary could imper-
sonate a benign node and thus get access to confidential resources, or
even propagate some fake messages to disturb the normal network
operations.
5. No repudiation
Non-repudiation ensures that the sender and the receiver of a message
cannot deny that they have ever sent or received such a message. This
is useful especially when one needs to determine if a node with some
abnormal behavior is compromised or not. If a node recognizes that
the message it has received is erroneous, it can then use the incorrect
message as evidence to notify other nodes that the node sending out
the improper message may have been compromised.
6. Authorization
Authorization is a process in which an entity is issued a credential
which specifies the privileges and permissions it has, and it cannot be
falsified by the certificate authority. Authorization is generally used
to assign different access rights to different levels of users. For in-
stance, one needs to ensure that network management function is only
accessible by the network administrator. Therefore, there should be an
authorization process before the network administrator accesses the
network management functions.
7. Anonymity
Anonymity means that all the information that can be used to identify
the owner or the current user of the node should default to be kept
private and not be distributed by the node itself or the system soft-
ware. This criterion is closely related to privacy preserving, in which
we should try to protect the privacy of the nodes from arbitrary disclo-
sure to any other entities.
Distributed Management Services in Mobile Ad Hoc and

Sensor Networks
Mobile ad hoc networks need an effective distributed management solution
which can handle various tasks in emergency and rescue operations. This
solution should be able to tackle some of the other components of a man-
agement system, such as resource management, privacy management, and
key management. The dynamic nature of a mobile ad hoc network makes
middleware services unsuitable for synchronous communication because
they are too vulnerable to communication disruptions. For example,
devices might suddenly be out of reach or turned off. The classic alterna-
tive to synchronous solutions is a distributed event notification system, as
shown in Figure 9.2. Among several technical challenges of mobile ad hoc
networks, the sharing of information among various computing devices can
be regarded as one of the important issues. Information access and shar-
ing is difficult in mobile ad hoc networks because of their dynamic nature,
scarce resources, and heterogeneous user devices.
Resource Management Tracking neighbouring nodes
Privacy Management Based on prior gathered certificates
Key Management Signing and encrypting messages
FIGURE 9.2 Distributed event management services.
Network-Wide Broadcasting, Handling Data Loss in Mobile

Ad Hoc Networks
Mobile ad hoc networks offer a unique art of network formation where
mobile devices can communicate with each other without a pre-existing
infrastructure. Ad hoc networks have been considered to be the foundation
for new technologies. One important issue is to try to reduce the packet
or the data loss during an active transmission. In mobile ad hoc networks,
mobile link transmission errors, mobility, and network congestion are some
of the major causes of data loss. Data loss due to transmission errors is
mainly affected by the physical condition of the channel and the region
where networks are deployed. These losses can’t be reduced with the
improvement in ad hoc routing protocols.
Each mobile device in an ad hoc network has to rely on others for for-
warding data packets to other nodes in the network. Routing protocols
of a mobile ad hoc network are another way to transmit data from one
device to another. NWB (Network-wide Broadcast) is considered to be one
of the routing or data exchange related operations, and it is used to dis-
cover routes for both unicast (one-to-one) and multi-cast (one-to-many)
data exchange operations. NWB can also be defined as a process through
which one mobile device sends a packet to all other devices in the network.
NWB provides important control and route establishment functionality to
different protocols of mobile ad hoc networks. It is especially important
for paging, alarming, location updates, route discoveries, or even rout-
ing in highly mobile ad hoc environments. Network-wide broadcasting is
normally achieved via flooding. In a flooding or broadcasting task, a source
mobile device floods or broadcasts the same message to all the devices in
the network. Some of the desirable properties of a scalable flooding scheme
are reliability, power, and bandwidth efficiency, which can be measured by
savings in rebroadcasts.
9.5 Ad Hoc Networks and Internet Connectivity

As illustrated in Figure 9.3, in order to provide Internet connectivity to
the nodes in an ad hoc network, one or more nodes in the ad hoc network
can serve as gateways to an external network, where the external network
can be an infrastructure network such as a LAN, the Internet, or a cellu-
lar network, or even an infrastructure-less network such as another ad hoc
network. As a solution, an integration of Mobile IP and ad hoc networks
is implemented, such that the Mobile IP enables nodes to move between
different gateways while maintaining the connectivity, and ad hoc routing
protocols provide connectivity among the nodes within the ad hoc network.
In other words the Mobile IP provides macro mobility, and ad hoc routing
protocols provide micro mobility. Micro mobility, also called Intra-Domain
mobility, is the movement of a mobile node within its own network, while
macro mobility, also called Inter-Domain mobility, is the movement of
mobile node between different networks.
Internet
Gateway
Gateway
Mobile
nodes
Ad hoc network
FIGURE 9.3 Internet connectivity in ad hoc networks.
9.6 Mobile Ad Hoc Networking for the Military

Driven by technologies such as data networking, GPS, real-time video feeds
from Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), and satellite intelligence, today’s mod-
ern military has access to a plethora of real-time data. However, getting this
information to the war fighter at the “edge of the network” is still problematic.
Getting real-time voice, data, and streaming video to the soldier at the edge is
no easy task. Soldiers are mobile and need high-performance, high-bandwidth
networks that move with them to deliver the information they need.
A portion of a military IP network can be based on fixed wired infra-
structure, utilizing satellites and networking equipment in operations and
command centers. But it is not practical or even possible to create a fixed,
wired network infrastructure on a battlefield; the only practical way to pro-
vide a networking infrastructure is to create a mobile wireless network.
Since most soldiers are typically in or near some sort of fighting vehicles,
an effective way to create a mobile wireless network is to make use of such
fighting vehicles to carry the infrastructure necessary to build and maintain
these networks on the move, as shown in Figure 9.4.
Mobile wireless networks are built using a variety of IP which enable

radios and specialized embedded network routers. Network infrastructure
radios are called backhaul radios, which can communicate with other back-
haul radios or with satellites. Each backhaul radio is connected to an IP
router to create a network node.
SATCOM Radio
Backhaul Radio
SATCOM Radio
Backhaul Radio
SATCOM Radio UAV Link Radio Backhaul Radio
Backhaul Radio Wireless Access Point
Wireless
Wireless Clients
Clients
Wireless Client
FIGURE 9.4 A view of a battlefield illustrating a mobile, wireless network capable of com-
municating voice, data, and video traffic. The networking infrastructure is
located in vehicles equipped with backhaul radios and embedded routers.
At the “edge of the network” are a variety of clients. Dismounted soldiers

carry some, such as handheld radios, man-pack radios, laptops, cameras, and
PDAs; multiple clients can connect wirelessly to the same IP network node.
There are also a variety of clients that reside inside vehicles. Often an Ethernet
switch is interfaced to the router in a vehicle, providing a vehicle local area
network (LAN) for clients such as radios, laptops, battlefield display systems,
and mission-control computers. This enables the same IP-networking sys-
tem in a vehicle to support both the internal vehicle and external vehicle
communications simultaneously. For example, externally mounted cameras
will stream video feeds to the dashboard utilizing the vehicle LAN while in-
vehicle and dismounted soldiers communicate with each other.
With fixed wired networks, the network nodes are fixed, and the only
components that move are clients that are not used to route other traffic,
such as cellular and Wi-Fi-enabled devices. On the battlefield, not only are
the clients mobile, but so are the basic building blocks of a mobile wireless
network, for example, the radios and specialized embedded routers. This
creates a fluid and ever-changing network with dynamic nodes and frequent
routing table changes. These are referred to as Mobile Ad hoc NETworks
(MA-NET).
Ad hoc networks have numerous distinguishing characteristics when
compared with conventional networking solutions, as shown in Table 9.2.
Ad hoc networks deliver a compelling advantage wherever highly mobile
soldiers, unsupported by fixed infrastructure, need to share IP-based infor-
mation. They offer superior information sharing at all levels, enabling
improved situational awareness, a clearer understanding of the leader’s
intent, and the ability for remote users to self synchronize.
Table 9.2 Advantages of Deployed Ad Hoc Networks
Self-forming Nodes that come within radio range of each other can establish a net-
work association without any preconfiguration or manual intervention.
Self-healing Nodes can join or leave rapidly without affecting operation of the
remaining nodes.
No infrastructure In an ad hoc network, mobile nodes form their own network and essen-
tially become their own infrastructure.
Peer-to-peer Traditional networks typically support end systems operating in client-
server mode. In an ad hoc network, mobile nodes can communicate and
exchange information without prior arrangement and without reliance
on centralized resources.
Predominantly Historically, networks have been mostly wired and enhanced or
wireless extended through wireless access. The ad hoc environment is essentially
wireless, but can be extended to support wired resources.
Highly dynamic Mobile nodes are in continuous motion, and ad hoc networking topolo-
gies are constantly changing
The fact that they are self forming and self healing facilitates deploy-
ment and minimizes the need for manual configuration and intervention.
Meanwhile, their multi-hop networking nature extends network coverage
and provides redundant paths for increased resilience. With ad hoc net-
works operators also have the ability to operate with or without connectivity
to a centralized network. Such networks are a key enabler for new applica-
tions such as vehicle-to-vehicle networking, intelligent transportation sys-
tems, sensor networking, telemetry monitoring, and more.
Specialized Embedded Routers

When there is a change to the network infrastructure requiring a change to
the way packets are routed, routing tables have to be updated and propa-
gated. Network operators in the fixed networks know the paths available
and can engineer the routing changes using costing in the rare cases where
neighbors change. There is typically the luxury of having monitoring points
send an alarm to a network operations center (NOC) in the event of such
network events. There can be months of planning for network or routing
changes within known maintenance windows. A traditional network router
would not cope with dynamic routing table changes that can occur with
nodes participating in a MANET.
Weather, terrain, and mobility make radio-based communications
dynamic; therefore, routers must be aware of each radio’s condition in order
to make effective routing decisions with built-in mechanisms to prevent
constant re-routing and human intervention. Mobile networks delivering
real-time services, such as video and data, cannot tolerate prolonged net-
work changes due to radio dynamics. To address this challenge, IP routers
are deployed with technology to minimize network disruption due to net-
work re-convergence. These routers support features such as radio-aware
routing, traffic optimization, firewall/network security, and voice services.
Mobile ad hoc networks for military applications pose hardware and plat-
form challenges because todays networking devices must be optimized from
a Size, Weight, and Power (SWaP) perspective and also be made to work
reliably in harsh environments. In the peer-to-peer world, anybody or any-
thing that moves can potentially be a wireless networking node. Military ad
hoc networking requires a variety of platforms, ranging from vehicle-based
to hand-carried or wearable, and all offering equivalent network services.
Whether a router and a Gbit Ethernet switch are deployed in a small
two-slot box to provide network connectivity and an in-vehicle LAN, or a
router is being integrated into a vehicle’s existing mission control computer,
space and power are at a premium. And the hardware needs to be able to
survive the harsh environment in a vehicle on a battlefield. Size, weight,
and power are even more critical for clients carried by dismounted sol-
diers. When the ruggedized, embedded routers are coupled with today’s
high-performance, IP-enabled radios, they do much more than just cre-
ate mobile ad hoc networks. They help ensure that the networks and the
data are highly secure, critical applications are prioritized, and bandwidth
is optimized. They deliver vital data to dismounted soldiers, such as live

streaming video. They allow commanders to get a total, integrated view of
the battlespace.
9.7 Vehicular Ad Hoc and Sensor Networks

Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks (VANETs) have grown out of the need to
support the growing number of wireless products that can now be used
in vehicles. These products include remote keyless entry devices, personal
digital assistants (PDAs), laptops, and mobile telephones. As mobile wire-
less devices and networks become increasingly important, the demand for
Vehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V) and Vehicle to-Roadside (VRC) or Vehicle-to-
Infrastructure (V2I) Communication will continue to grow. VANETs can
be utilized for a broad range of safety and non-safety applications, allow for
value-added services such as vehicle safety, automated toll payment, traffic
management, enhanced navigation, location-based services such as finding
the closest fuel station, restaurant, or travel lodge, and infotainment appli-
cations such as providing access to the Internet.
Intelligent transportation systems (ITSs)

In intelligent transportation systems, each vehicle takes on the role of
sender, receiver, and router to broadcast information to the vehicular net-
work or transportation agency, which then uses the information to ensure
safe, free flow of traffic. For communication to occur between vehicles and
RoadSide Units (RSUs), vehicles must be equipped with some sort of radio
interface or OnBoard Unit (OBU) that enables short-range wireless ad hoc
networks to be formed. Vehicles must also be fitted with hardware that
permits detailed position information such as a Global Positioning System
(GPS) or a Differential Global Positioning System (DGPS) receiver. Fixed
RSUs, which are connected to the backbone network, must be in place to
facilitate communication. The number and distribution of roadside units is
dependent on the communication protocol that is to be used. For example,
some protocols require roadside units to be distributed evenly throughout
the whole road network, some require roadside units only at intersections,
while others require roadside units only at region borders. Though it is safe
to assume that infrastructure exists to some extent and vehicles have access
to it intermittently, it is unrealistic to require that vehicles always have wire-
less access to roadside units.
Figures 9.5, 9.6, and 9.7 depict the possible communication configu-
rations in intelligent transportation systems. These include inter-vehicle,
vehicle-to-roadside, and routing-based communications. Inter-vehicle, vehi-
cle-to-roadside, and routing-based communications rely on very accurate and
up-to-date information about the surrounding environment which, in turn,
requires the use of accurate positioning systems and smart communication
protocols for exchanging information. In a network environment in which
the communication medium is shared, highly unreliable, and with limited
bandwidth, smart communication protocols must guarantee fast and reliable
delivery of information to all vehicles in the vicinity. It is worth mentioning
that Intra-vehicle communication uses technologies such as IEEE 802.15.1
(Bluetooth), IEEE 802.15.3 (Ultra-wide Band), and IEEE 802.15.4 (Zigbee)
that can be used to support wireless communication inside a vehicle.
1. Inter-vehicle communication
The inter-vehicle communication configuration (Figure 9.5) uses multi-
hop multicast/broadcast to transmit traffic related information over mul-
tiple hops to a group of receivers. In intelligent transportation systems,
vehicles need only be concerned with activity on the road ahead and not
behind (an example of this would be for emergency message dissemina-
tion about an imminent collision or dynamic route scheduling). There
are two types of message forwarding in inter-vehicle communications:
naive broadcasting and intelligent broadcasting. In naive broadcasting,
vehicles send broadcast messages periodically and at regular intervals.
Upon receipt of the message, the vehicle ignores the message if it has
come from a vehicle behind it. If the message comes from a vehicle in
front, the receiving vehicle sends its own broadcast message to vehicles
behind it. This ensures that all enabled vehicles moving in the forward
direction get all broadcast messages. The limitations of the naive broad-
casting method is that large numbers of broadcast messages are gen-
erated, therefore increasing the risk of message collision, resulting in
lower message delivery rates and increased delivery times. Intelligent
broadcasting with implicit acknowledgement addresses the problems
inherent in naive broadcasting by limiting the number of messages
broadcast for a given emergency event. If the event-detecting vehicle
receives the same message from behind, it assumes that at least one ve-
hicle in the back has received it and ceases broadcasting. The assump-
tion is that the vehicle in the back will be responsible for moving the
message along to the rest of the vehicles. If a vehicle receives a message
from more than one source, it will act on the first message only.
FIGURE 9.5 Inter-vehicle communication.
2. Vehicle-to-roadside communication
The vehicle-to-roadside communication configuration (Figure 9.6)
represents a single hop broadcast where the roadside unit sends a
broadcast message to all equipped vehicles in the vicinity. Vehicle-to-
roadside communication configuration provides a high bandwidth link
between vehicles and roadside units. The roadside units may be placed
every kilometer or less, enabling high data rates to be maintained in
heavy traffic. For instance, when broadcasting dynamic speed limits,
the roadside unit will determine the appropriate speed limit accord-
ing to its internal timetable and traffic conditions. The roadside unit
will periodically broadcast a message containing the speed limit and
will compare any geographic or directional limits with vehicle data to
determine if a speed limit warning applies to any of the vehicles in the
vicinity. If a vehicle violates the desired speed limit, a broadcast will be
delivered to the vehicle in the form of an auditory or visual warning,
requesting that the driver reduce his speed.
Road side
unit (RSU)
FIGURE 9.6 Vehicle-to-roadside communication.

3. Routing-based communication
The routing-based communication configuration (Figure 9.7) is a
multi-hop unicast where a message is propagated in a multi-hop fash-
ion until the vehicle carrying the desired data is reached. When the
query is received by a vehicle owning the desired piece of information,
the application at that vehicle immediately sends a unicast message
containing the information to the vehicle it received the request from,
which is then charged with the task of forwarding it toward the query
source.
B
A: Message
to B
A B: Message
from A
FIGURE 9.7 Routing based communication.
The rapid increase of vehicular traffic and congestion on the highways

began hampering the safe and efficient movement of traffic. Conse-
quently, year by year, there is an ascending rate of car accidents and
casualties in most countries. Therefore, exploiting the technologies,
the vehicular network employing wireless Sensor networks as Vehic-
ular Ad Hoc and Sensor Network, or VASNET for short, is required
as a solution of reduction of these sad and reprehensible statistics.
VASNET is a self-organizing Ad Hoc and sensor network composed
of a large number of sensor nodes. In VASNET there are two kinds
of sensor nodes; some are embedded on the vehicles—vehicular
nodes—and others are deployed in predetermined distances beside
the highway, known as Road Side Sensor nodes (RSS). The vehicular
nodes are used to sense the velocity of the vehicle, for instance. Base
Stations (BS) are, for example, a Police Traffic Station, a Firefight-
ing Group, or a Rescue Team. The base stations may be stationary
or mobile. VASNET provides capability of wireless commumcation
between vehicular nodes and stationary nodes, to increase safety and

comfort for vehicles on the roads.
Vehicular Ad Hoc Network (VANET)
Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks (VANET), upon implementation, should col-
lect and distribute safety information to massively reduce the number of
accidents by warning drivers about the danger before they actually face it.
VANET consist of some sensors embedded on the vehicles. The onboard
sensors’ readings can be displayed to the drivers via monitors to be aware of
the vehicle condition or emergency alarms, and also can be broadcast to the
other adjacent vehicles. VANET can also be helped by some of the Roadside
Units like Cellular Base Stations to distribute the data to the other vehicles, as
shown in Figure 9.8. VANET makes extensive use of wireless communication
to achieve its aims. VANET is a kind of Mobile Ad Hoc Network (MANET)
with some differences, like limitation in power, moving pattern, and mobility.
Limitation in Power: In MANET, power constraint is one of the most
important challenges which has over shadowed all other aspects, namely
routing and fusion; on the other hand in VANET, a huge battery is carried by
the vehicle (i.e., car’s battery), so, energy consumption is not a salient issue.
Moving pattern: It is random in the MANET while vehicles tend to
move in an organized fashion in VANET.
Mobility: There is high mobility in the VANET in comparison to
MANET. However, self-organization and lack of infrastructure are similari-
ties between MANET and VANET. There are some salient challenges in
VANET, such as;
1. As mobile nodes (vehicles) are moving with high mobility, quick
changes in the VANETs topology are difficult to control.
2. The communication between the vehicles is prone to frequent frag-
mentation.
3. Rapid change in the link’s connectivity cause many paths to be discon-
nected before they can be utilized.
4. There is no constant density in VANET, as in highways it is high den-
sity and in the rural areas, low density.
5. A message can change the topology; for instance, when a driver re-
ceives an alarm message, he/she may change his/her direction, which
may cause the change in the topology.
Road side
base station
Emergency
event
Inter-vehicle
communication
Vehicle-to -roadside
communication
FIGURE 9.8 VANET communication structure.
9.8 Application of VANET

Crash prevention applications that rely on an infrastructure include road
geometry warning to help drivers at steep or curved roads, warning over-
weight or over height vehicles, highway rail crossing and intersection colli-
sion systems to help drivers cross safely, and pedestrian, cyclist, and animal
warning systems to inform drivers of possible collisions. These systems
become of vital importance at night or under low visibility conditions.
Safety applications which do not rely on an infrastructure include an
emergency brake announcement, which is the most important applica-
tion for crash prevention. The first two cars might not benefit from the
emergency brake system, but further cars can avoid the crash. Lane change
assistance, road obstacle detection, road departure warning, as well as for-
ward and rear collision warning are all examples of safety V2V applications.
Vehicles can also automatically send help requests in case of an accident,
which can be vital when no other cars are around.
The system can also help the driver in other ways such as vision
enhancement via image processing techniques, and lane keeping assistance
and monitoring of onboard systems as well as any cargo or trailers con-
nected to the vehicle. Such systems are generalized as Advanced Driver
Assistance Systems (ADAS). The commercial applications of the system
cover a wide range of innovative ideas aiding individuals and tourists, such
as booking a parking place, downloading tourism information and maps for
restaurants and gas stations, navigation and route guidance, payment at toll
plazas, Internet access, and connection to home computers. Other devices
within the vehicle can also be connected to the On Board Units (OBU)
to access any services provided by the network or through the Internet.
These applications are not required by the government, but they encourage
people to install the system.
Users enter their start position, destination, and time to start their
journey, and the server responds with the two best routes. The routes are
compiled from a nine-month survey as well as simulations. In its final ver-
sion the system should be able to collect data from the sensors installed
in cars and provide the routes to the OBU. Subscribers to the system get
an onboard navigation system that receives information about the weather,
road conditions, traffic, and any other related data from road side units and
displays it to the user. A number of applications are envisioned for these
networks, some of which are:
• Vehicle collision warning
• Security distance warning
• Driver assistance
• Cooperative driving
• Cooperative cruise control
• Dissemination of road information
• Internet access
• Map location
• Automatic parking
• Driverless vehicles
9.9 Routing for VANET

VANETs are a specific class of ad hoc networks; the commonly used ad hoc
routing protocols initially implemented for MANETs have been tested and
evaluated for use in a VANET environment. Use of these address-based
and topology-based routing protocols requires that each of the participating
nodes be assigned a unique address. This implies that we need a mechanism
that can be used to assign unique addresses to vehicles, but these protocols
do not guarantee the avoidance of allocation of duplicate addresses in the
network. Thus, existing distributed addressing algorithms used in mobile
ad hoc networks are much less suitable in a VANET environment. Specific
VANET-related issues such as network topology, mobility patterns, demo-

graphics, density of vehicles at different times of the day, rapid changes in
vehicles arriving and leaving the VANET, and the fact that the width of the
road is often smaller than the transmission range all make the use of these
conventional ad hoc routing protocols inadequate.
1. Proactive routing protocols
Proactive routing protocols employ standard distance-vector rout-
ing strategies (e.g., Destination-Sequenced Distance-Vector (DSDV)
routing) or link-state routing strategies (e.g., Optimized Link State
Routing protocol (OLSR) and Topology Broadcast-based on Reverse-
Path Forwarding (TBRPF)). They maintain and update information
on routing among all nodes of a given network at all times, even if
the paths are not currently being used. Route updates are periodically
performed regardless of network load, bandwidth constraints, and net-
work size. The main drawback of such approaches is that the mainte-
nance of unused paths may occupy a significant part of the available
bandwidth if the topology of the network changes frequently. Since a
network between cars is extremely dynamic, proactive routing algo-
rithms are often inefficient.
2. Reactive routing protocols
Reactive routing protocols such as Dynamic Source Routing (DSR)
and Ad hoc On-demand Distance Vector (AODV) routing implement
route determination on a demand or need basis and maintain only the
routes that are currently in use, thereby reducing the burden on the
network when only a subset of available routes is in use at any time.
Communication among vehicles will only use a very limited number
of routes, and therefore reactive routing is particularly suitable for this
application scenario.
3. Position-based routing
Position-based routing protocols require that information about the
physical position of the participating nodes be available. This position
is made available to the direct neighbors in the form of periodically
transmitted beacons. A sender can request the position of a receiver by
means of a location service. The routing decision at each node is then
based on the destination’s position contained in the packet and the posi-
tion of the forwarding node’s neighbors. Consequently, position-based
routing does not require the establishment or maintenance of routes.
Examples of position-based routing algorithms include Greedy Perim-

eter Stateless Routing (GPSR) and Distance Routing Effect Algorithm
for Mobility (DREAM). In a position-based routing protocol based on
a greedy forwarding mechanism, packets are forwarded through nodes
geographically closer to the destination than the previous node. Thus,
the position of the next hop will always be closer to the destination
node than that of the current hop. The “perimeter routing” mode of
GPSR (greedy perimeter stateless routing) that searches for alternate
routes that may not be geographically closer is not considered since
in a highway scenario the width of the road is often smaller than the
range of transmission. Thus, in this scenario there is no way for a route
to move away from the destination and still find its way back.
Existing ad hoc networks employ topology-based routing where routes
are established over a fixed succession of nodes but which can lead to
broken routes and a high overhead to repair these routes. The special
conditions and requirements for vehicular communications, including
frequent topology changes, short connectivity time, and positioning sys-
tems have justified the development of dedicated routing solutions for
wireless multi-hop communication based on geographic positions. The
use of Global Positioning System (GPS) technology enables forward-
ing to be decoupled from a node’s identity, and therefore the position
of the destination node is used rather than a route to it which requires
traffic flow via a set of neighbors. Thus position-based routing provides
a more scalable and efficient forwarding mechanism appropriate for
highly volatile ad hoc networks found in VANETs.
Position-based routing constitutes three core components: beaconing,
location service, and forwarding (geographic unicast and geographic
broadcast). A position-based routing scheme which employs a unique
identifier such as an IP address is used to identify a vehicle along with
its current position (GPS coordinate). This scheme only requires that
a vehicle knows its own position and that of its one-hop neighbors. As-
suming a packet contains the destination position, the router forwards
the packet to a node closer to the destination than itself. Given the
relatively high speeds of the large number of vehicles involved, this
scheme is both adaptive and scalable with respect to network topology.
4. Beaconing and location service
Vehicles periodically broadcast short packets with their identifier and
current geographic position. Upon receipt of a beacon, a vehicle stores
the information in its location table. The requesting vehicle issues a lo-
cation query message requesting the identification and sequence num-
bers and hop limit when it needs to know the position of a required
vehicle not available in its location table. This message is rebroadcast
to nearby vehicles until it reaches the required vehicle or the hop limit
is reached. If the request is not a duplicate, the required vehicle an-
swers with a location reply message carrying its current position and
timestamp. Upon receipt of the location reply, the originating vehicle
updates its location table.
5. Forwarding
A geographic unicast transports packets between two nodes via mul-
tiple wireless hops. When the requesting node wishes to send a unicast
packet, it determines the position of the destination node by looking
at the location table. A greedy forwarding algorithm is then used to
send the packet to the neighboring vehicle (Figure 9.9), detailing the
minimum remaining distance to the destination vehicle, and this pro-
cess repeats at every vehicle along the forwarding path until the packet
reaches its destination. A geographic broadcast distributes data packets
by flooding, where vehicles re-broadcast the packets if they are located
in the geographic area determined by the packet. The application of
advanced broadcasting algorithms help to minimize overhead by re-
ducing the occurrence of broadcast storms. Data and control packet
forwarding must be loop-free and toward the destination or target area
location. Having packets forwarded across the shortest path toward the
destination is not a requirement due to the high network volatility.
C
E
A
Path
A-C-D-E
B
FIGURE 9.9 Cached Greedy Geographic Unicast (CGGC), an example of a greedy unicast
transmission based on knowledge of the destination’s position.
6. Protocols for dedicated short-range communication (DSRC)

Recent research on dedicated short-range communication protocols,
namely Coordinated External Peer Communication (CEPEC) and
Communications Architecture for Reliable Adaptive Vehicular Ad
Hoc Networks (CARAVAN) use mapping and timeslot allocation to
reduce the occurrence of denial of service attacks or attacks that bur-
den the limited bandwidth available in vehicular networks.
Communications in a vehicular network are susceptible to denial of
service attacks by jamming the communication medium or taxing the lim-
ited wireless bandwidth that is available. These attacks are possible due to
the DSRC standard specification that a vehicle must wait to transmit until
it senses that the channel is idle, allowing a malicious vehicle to constantly
transmit noise to prevent transmission from within sensing range of the
attacker vehicle.
The Communications Architecture for Reliable Adaptive Vehicular
Ad Hoc Networks (CARAVAN) is a solution to these types of communi-
cation attacks. CARAVAN uses trusted computing platforms, spread spec-
trum technology, and a secret pseudorandom spreading code to verify the
integrity of the software and hardware of the sending vehicle before allow-
ing the vehicle to transmit messages. CARAVAN includes a new link layer
protocol called Adaptive Space Division Multiplexing (ASDM) that allo-
cates timeslots to vehicles to maximize anti-jamming protection. ASDM
includes original features that improve on existing Space Division Multiple
Access (SDMA) protocols in terms of bandwidth utilization by splitting the
roadway into discrete cells that can contain at most one vehicle. A mapping
function is then defined that assigns each of the cells a timeslot. No two
cells within a predefined range of each other will have the same timeslot.
In their approach the physical layer is split into two frequency bands with
radio ranges that are selected based on the requirements of the messages
carried in each band. Irregularly occurring warning messages place a pre-
mium on network connectivity since they are of interest to vehicles far from
the message source. These messages are relatively infrequent and therefore
require less bandwidth. Periodic messages, on the other hand, are only of
interest to vehicles close to the message source, but there are a large num-
ber of these messages and they must be generated frequently. The network
protocol includes message forwarding rules and a method that leverages
the benefits of varying radio ranges to speed delivery of irregular messages.
A cross-layer protocol called Coordinated External Peer Communication
(CEPEC) is used for peer to-peer communications in vehicular networks.
The CEPEC protocol coordinates the functions of physical, MAC, and net-
work layers to provide a fair and handoff-free solution for uplink packet
delivery from vehicles to roadside units. With CEPEC, the road is logically
partitioned into segments of equal length and a relaying head is selected
in each segment to perform local packet collecting and aggregate packet
relaying. Nodes outside the coverage area of the nearest roadside unit
can still get access via a multi-hop route to their roadside unit. Similar
to CARAVAN, CEPEC allocates timeslots to vehicles in two steps: first,
the roadside unit allocates the timeslots to the segments. Second, intra-
segment timeslot allocation occurs where the Segment Head (SH) assigns
timeslots to individual vehicles within the segment. Results show that the
CEPEC protocol provides higher throughput with guaranteed fairness in
multihop data delivery in VANETs when compared with a purely IEEE
802.16-based protocol.
Broadcasting
A geographic broadcast distributes data packets by flooding, where vehicles
re-broadcast the packets if they are located in the geographic area deter-
mined by the packet. The application of broadcasting algorithms help to
minimize overhead by reducing the occurrence of broadcast storms. Data
and control packet forwarding must be loop-free and in the direction of the
destination or target area location. Having packets forwarded across the
shortest path toward the destination is typically found in conventional rout-
ing networks and is not a requirement due to the high network volatility.
Several routing efforts have investigated the design of ad hoc routing
algorithms suitable for operation in a VANET environment to deal with:
a node’s mobility, by discovering new routes (reactive routing algorithms),
updating existing routing tables (proactive routing algorithms), using
geographical location information (position-based routing algorithms),
detecting stable vehicle configurations (clusters), using a vehicle’s move-
ments to support message transportation, and using broadcasting to sup-
port message forwarding.
Vehicles periodically broadcast short packets with their identifiers and
current geographic position. Upon receipt of such beacons, a vehicle stores
the information in its location table. It is therefore possible to design a
Cooperative Collision Avoidance (CCA) system that can assist in collision
avoidance by delivering warning messages. When an emergency situation
arises, a vehicle that is part of a CCA platoon needs to broadcast a message
to all of the vehicles behind it. The vehicles that receive this message selec-
tively forward it based upon the direction from which it came which ensures
that all members of the platoon eventually receive this warning.
Mobicasting
The mobicast routing protocol for VANET takes the factor of time into
account. The main goal of the mobicast routing protocol is the delivery of
information to all nodes that happen to be in a prescribed region of space
at a particular point in time. The mobicast protocol is designed to support
applications which require spatiotemporary coordination in vehicular ad
hoc networks. The spatiotemporary character of a mobicast is to forward
a mobicast message to vehicles located in some geographic zone at time t,
where the geographic zone is denoted as the Zone Of Relevance (ZORt).
Vehicles located in ZORt at the time t should receive the mobicast message.
Two features are introduced in the mobicast routing protocol for safety
and comfort applications, as follows.
To support safety applications, the mobicast routing protocol must dis-
seminate the message on time. Vehicles located in the ZORt should receive
the mobicast message before time t + 1; therefore, vehicles located in ZORt
at time t must keep the connectivity to maintain the realtime data commu-
nication between all vehicles in ZORt. However, the connectivity in ZORt
is easily lost if any vehicle in ZOR suddenly accelerates or decelerates its
velocity, and this leads to a temporary network fragmentation problem.
Some vehicles in ZORt cannot successfully receive the mobicast messages
due to the temporary network fragmentation. To solve this problem, dis-
seminate mobicast messages to all vehicles in ZORt via a special geographic
zone, known as a Zone Of Forwarding (ZOFt). This protocol dynamically
estimates the accurate ZOFt to guarantee that the mobicast messages can be
successfully disseminated before time t + 1 to all vehicles located in ZORt.
In contrast, comfort applications for VANET are usually delay-tolerant.
That is, messages initiated from a specific vehicle at time t can be delivered
through VANETs to some vehicles within a given constrained delay time λ.
For all vehicles located in the zone of relevance at time t (denoted as ZORt),
the mobicast routing is able to disseminate the data message initiated from
a specific vehicle to all vehicles which have ever appeared in ZORt at time t.
This data dissemination must be done before time t + λ through the multi-
hop forwarding and carry-and-forward techniques. The temporary network
fragmentation problem is also considered in their protocol design. A low
degree of channel utilization should be maintained to reserve the resource

for safety applications.
Quality of Service (QoS)

The term Quality of Service (QoS) is used to express the level of perfor-
mance provided to users. High levels of QoS in traditional networked envi-
ronments can often be achieved through resource reservation and sufficient
infrastructure, however, these cannot be guaranteed in dynamic, ad hoc
environments, such as those used in VANETs due to the VANETs’ inherent
lack of consistent infrastructure and rapidly changing topology. Most QoS
routing strategies aim to provide robust routes among nodes and try to mini-
mize the amount of time required to rebuild a broken connection. However,
factors such as node velocity, node positioning, the distance between nodes,
a reliability of and delay between links can seriously affect the stability of
a particular route. QoS can be guaranteed by detecting redundant source
nodes and preventing the transmission of duplicate information, thereby
restricting redundant broadcasts that limit the application’s bandwidth con-
sumption, which improves the latency of messages.
9.10 Security in VANET

The security of VANETs is crucial as their very existence relates to critical,
life threatening situations. It is imperative that vital information cannot be
inserted or modified by a malicious person. The system must be able to
determine the liability of drivers while still maintaining their privacy.
These problems are difficult to solve because of the network size, the
speed of the vehicles, their relative geographic position, and the random-
ness of the connectivity between them. An advantage of vehicular net-
works over the more common ad hoc networks is that they provide ample
computational and power resources. For instance, a typical vehicle in such
a network could host several tens or even hundreds of microprocessors.
Attackers are classified as having three dimensions: “insider versus out-
sider,” “malicious versus rational,” and “active versus passive.” The types of
attacks against messages can be described as follows: “Bogus Infoimation,”
“Cheating with Positioning Information,” “ID disclosure,” “Denial of
Service,” and “Masquerade.” The reliability of a system where information
is gathered and shared among entities in a VANET raises concerns about
data authenticity. For example, a sender could misrepresent observations to
gain advantage (e.g., a vehicle falsely reports that its desired road is jammed
with traffic, thereby encouraging others to avoid this route and providing
a less congested trip). More malicious reporters could impersonate other
vehicles or road-side infrastructure to trigger safety hazards. Vehicles could
reduce this threat by creating networks of trust and ignoring, or at least
distrusting, information from untrusted senders.
Threats to Availability, Authenticity, and Confidentiality

Attacks can be broadly categorized into three main groups: those that pose
a threat to availability, those that pose a threat to authenticity, and those that
pose a threat to driver confidentiality. The following sections present threats
posed to each of the areas of availability, authenticity, and confidentiality.
Threats to availability
The following threats to the availability of vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-
to-roadside communication (including routing functionality) have been
identified:
Denial of Service Attack: DoS attacks can be carried out by network
insiders and outsiders and renders the network unavailable to authentic
users by flooding and jamming with likely catastrophic results. Hooding
the control channel with high volumes of artificially generated mes-
sages, the network’s nodes, onboard units, and roadside units cannot
sufficiently process the surplus data.
Broadcast Tampering: An inside attacker may inject false safety mes-
sages into the network to cause damage, such as causing an accident by
suppressing traffic warnings or manipulating the flow of traffic around
a chosen route.
Malware: The introduction of malware, such as viruses or worms, into
VANETs has the potential to cause serious disruption to its operation.
Malware attacks are more likely to be carried out by a rogue insider
rather than an outsider and may be introduced into the network when
the onboard units and roadside units receive software and firmware
updates.
Spamming: The presence of spam messages on VANETs elevates the risk
of increased transmission latency. Spamming is made more difficult to
control because of the absence of a basic infrastructure and centralized
administration.
Black Hole Attack: A black hole is formed when nodes refuse to par-
ticipate in the network or when an established node drops out. When
the node drops out, all routes it participated in are broken, leading to a
failure to propagate messages.
Threats to authenticity
Providing authenticity in a vehicular network involves protecting legitimate
nodes from inside and/or outside attackers infiltrating the network using
a false identity, identifying attacks that suppress, fabricate, alter, or replay
legitimate messages, revealing spoofed GPS signals, and impeding the
introduction of misinformation into the vehicular network. These include:
Masquerading: Masquerading attacks are easy to perform on VANETs
as all that is required for an attacker to join the network is a functioning
onboard unit. By posing as legitimate vehicles in the network, outsiders
can conduct a variety of attacks such as forming black holes or producing
false messages.
Replay Attack: In a replay attack the attacker re-injects previously
received packets back into the network, poisoning a node’s location
table by replaying beacons. VANETs operating in the WAVE frame-
work are protected from replay attacks, but to continue protection an
accurate source of time must be maintained, as this is used to keep a
cache of recently received messages against which new messages can
be compared.
Global Positioning System (GPS) Spoofing: The GPS satellite maintains
a location table with the geographic location and identity of all vehicles
on the network. An attacker can fool vehicles into thinking that they are
in a different location by producing false readings in the GPS position-
ing system devices. This is possible through the use of a GPS satellite
simulator to generate signals that are stronger than those generated by
the genuine satellite.
Tunneling: An attacker exploits the momentary loss of positioning
information when a vehicle enters a tunnel, and before it receives the
authentic positioning information, the attacker injects false data into the
onboard unit.
Position Faking: Authentic and accurate reporting of vehicle position
information must be ensured. Vehicles are solely responsible for provid-
ing their location information, and impersonation must be impossible.
Unsecured communication can allow attackers to modify or falsify their
own position information to other vehicles, create additional vehicle

identifiers (also known as a Sybil Attack), or block vehicles from receiv-
ing vital safety messages.
Message Tampering: A threat to authenticity can result from an attacker
modifying the messages exchanged in vehicle-to-vehicle or vehicle-to-
roadside unit communication in order to falsify transaction application
requests or to forge responses.
Message Suppression/Fabrication/Alteration: In this case an attacker
either physically disables inter-vehicle communication or modifies the
application to prevent it from sending to, or responding from, application
beacons.
Key and/or Certificate Replication: Closely related to broadcast tam-
pering is key management and/or certificate replication, where an
attacker could undermine the system by duplicating a vehicle’s identity
across several other vehicles. The objective of such an attack would be
to confuse authorities and prevent identification of vehicles in hit-and-
run events.
Sybil Attack: Since periodic safety messages are single hop broadcasts,
the focus has been mostly on securing the application layer. For example,
the IEEE 1609.2 standard does not consider the protection of multi-hop
routing. However, when the network operation is not secured, an attacker
can potentially partition the network and make delivery of event-driven
safety messages impossible.
Threats to confidentiality
Confidentiality of messages exchanged between the nodes of a vehicular
network are particularly vulnerable with techniques such as the illegitimate
collection of messages through eavesdropping and the gathering of loca-
tion information available through the transmission of broadcast messages.
In the case of eavesdropping, insider and/or outsider attackers can collect
information about road users without their knowledge and use the infor-
mation at a time when the user is unaware of the collection. Location pri-
vacy and anonymity are important issues for vehicle users. Location privacy
involves protecting users by obscuring the user’s exact location in space and
time. By concealing a user’s request so that it is indistinguishable from other
user’s requests, a degree of anonymity can be achieved.
Authentication with digital signatures: Authentication with digital signa-
ture is a good choice for VANETs because safety messages are normally
standalone. Moreover, because of the large number of network mem-

bers and variable connectivity to authentication servers, a Public Key
Infrastructure (PKI) is an excellent method by which to implement authen-
tication where each vehicle would be provided with a public/private key
pair. Before sending a safety message, it signs it with its private key and
includes the Certification Authority (CA) certificate. By using private keys,
a tamper-proof device is needed in each vehicle where secret information
will be stored and the outgoing messages will be signed. The large compu-
tational burden of verifying a digital signature for every received packet has
led to an exploration for alternatives.
9.11 The VSN Architecture for Micro Climate Monitoring

CO2
Sensor
GSM
Base Station GPS
Jennic short
message
GPS
receiver
Wireless GSM
Jennicss Module
Link Wirele
GSM
Network
Vehicular Sensor Monitoring Server

Other Vehicle
FIGURE 9.10 The VSN architecture for micro climate monitoring.
Figure 9.10 illustrates the proposed VSN architecture for microclimate

monitoring. It contains a monitoring server, several vehicular sensors, and
GSM networks. Each vehicular sensor is equipped with a CO2 sensor, a GSM
module, and a GPS receiver and periodically reports its sensed CO2 concentra-
tion and its current location to the server through GSM short messages. The
monitoring server then calculates the distribution of CO2 concentration and
renders the result on Google Maps. According to the observed distribution
and the number of vehicular sensors, the server will ask sensors to adjust
their reporting rates. For each vehicular sensor, the intra-vehicle network
is a Zigbee network.
VANET simulation models
The environment and topology of VANETs makes it difficult to implement
and evaluate them. Outdoor experiments can be used to evaluate VANET pro-
tocols and applications, but these can be difficult and expensive to implement
because of the high number of vehicles and real-life scenarios involved. It is
difficult to perform actual empirical performance measurements because of
the inherently distributed, complex environment. To overcome these limita-
tions, simulation tools are used extensively for VANET simulations.
Summary
• A wireless ad hoc sensor network consists of a number of sensors
spread across a geographical area.
• Each sensor has wireless communication capability and some level of
intelligence for signal processing and networking of the data.
• The requirements of wireless ad hoc sensor networks are a large
number of sensors, low energy use, network self-organization,
collaborative signal processing, and querying ability.
• Mobile ad hoc networks have features such as autonomous terminals,
distributed operation, multi-hop routing, dynamic network topology,
fluctuating link capacity, and lightweight terminals.
• The routing issues of MANET are unpredictability of environment,
unreliability of wireless medium, resource constrained nodes, and
dynamic topology.
• The types of faults in MANETs are transmission errors, node failures,
link failures, route breakages, and congested nodes or links.
• Routing protocols are classified into two categories: table driven and
source initiated.
• DSDV, CGSR, and WRP are table-driven or proactive-routing protocols.
• DSR, ABR, AODV, and TORA are source-initiated or reactive-routing
protocols.
• The attacks are classified into two types, passive and active.
• In a passive attack, the normal operation of routing is not interrupted.

The attacker tries to gather the information.
• In an active attack, the attacker inserts some arbitrary packets and
therefore might affect the normal operation of the network.
• VANET consists of some sensors embedded on vehicles.
• Applications of VANETs are vehicle collision warning, security
distance warning, driver assistance, cooperative driving, cooperative
cruise control, dissemination of road information, Internet access,
map location, automatic parking, and driverless vehicles.
Questions
1. What are wireless ad hoc sensor networks?
2. What are the classifications of wireless ad hoc sensor networks?
3. What are the requirements of wireless ad hoc sensor networks?
4. List the application of wireless ad hoc sensor networks.
5. List the features of mobile ad hoc networks.
6. What are the routing issues for MANET deployment?
7. Compare WSN and MANET.
8. Explain the classification of routing protocols for MANETs in detail.
9. Write about the security in ad hoc networks.
10. What are the types of attacks in ad hoc networks?
11. List the criteria for a secure routing protocol.
12. In detail write about the security criteria for mobile ad hoc and sen-
sor networks.
13. How can ad hoc networks and the Internet be interfaced?
14. Give the application of mobile ad hoc networking for the military.
15. What are the advantages of deployed ad hoc networks?
16. Explain about the intelligent transportation system.
17. Define VANET.
18. What are the applications of VANET?

19. Explain routing protocols for VANET.
20. Write in detail about the security in VANET.
21. Draw the VSN architecture for micro-climate monitoring. Explain.
Further Reading
1. Ad Hoc Wireless Networks: Architectures and Protocols by C. Siva
Ram Murthy
2. Ad Hoc Mobile Wireless Networks: Protocols and Systems by C. K. Toh
3. Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks: Standards, Solutions, and Research by
Claudia Campolo, Antonella Molinaro, and Riccardo Scopigno
References
1. shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/bitstream/10603/4106/11/1 l_chapter%203.
pdf
2. www.csie.ntpu.edu.tw/~yschen/mypapers/TS-2010-l-2.pdf
CHAPTER
10
ROUTING AND
SECURITY IN WSNS
This chapter discusses the algorithms required for wireless sensor
networks, the network routing protocols, and security in WSNs.
10.1 Algorithms for Wireless Sensor Networks

A wireless sensor network may comprise thousands of sensor nodes. Each
sensor node has a sensing capability as well as a limited energy supply, com-
puting power, memory, and communication ability. Besides military appli-
cations, wireless sensor networks may be used to monitor microclimates and
wildlife habitats, the structural integrity of bridges and buildings, building
security, the location of valuable assets (via sensors placed on these valuable
assets), traffic, and so on. However, realizing the full potential of wireless
sensor networks poses myriad research challenges ranging from hardware
and architectural issues, to programming languages and operating systems
for sensor networks, to security concerns, to algorithms for sensor network
deployment, operation, and management. At a high level, the developed
algorithms may be categorized as either centralized or distributed. Because
of the limited memory, computing, and communication capability of sen-
sors, distributed algorithms research has focused on localized distributed
algorithms that require only local (e.g., nearest neighbor) information.
Sensor Deployment and Coverage

In a typical sensor network application, sensors are to be placed (or deployed)
so as to monitor a region or a set of points. In some applications one may
be able to select the sites where sensors are placed while in others (e.g., in
hostile environments) one may simply scatter (e.g., air drop) a sufficiently
large number of sensors over the monitoring region with the expectation
that the sensors that survive the air drop will be able to adequately monitor
the target region. When site selection is possible, one can use deterministic
sensor deployment and when site selection isn’t possible, the deployment is
nondeterministic. In both cases, it often is desirable that the deployed col-
lection of sensors be able to communicate with one another, either directly
or indirectly via multi-hop communication. So, in addition to covering the
region or set of points to be sensed, it often requires the deployed col-
lection of sensors to form a connected network. For a given placement of
sensors, it is easy to check whether the collection covers the target region
or point set and also whether the collection is connected. For the coverage
property, it needs to know the sensing range of individual sensors (assume
that a sensor can sense events that occur within a distance r, where r is the
sensor’s sensing range), and for the connected property, it needs to know
the communication range, c, of a sensor.
Theorem 1: when the sensor density (i.e., number of sensors per unit area)
is finite, c ≥ 2r is a necessary and sufficient condition for coverage to imply
connectivity.
There is a similar result for the case of k-coverage (each point is covered
by at least k sensors) and k-connectivity (the communication graph for the
deployed sensors is k connected).
Theorem 2: when c ≥ 2r, k-coverage of a convex region implies k-connectivity.
Notice that k-coverage with k > 1 affords some degree of fault tolerance;
one is able to monitor all points so long as no more than k – 1 sensors
fail. Other variations of the sensor deployment problem also are possible.
For example, one may have no need for sensors to communicate with one
another. Instead, each sensor communicates directly with a base station
that is situated within the communication range of all sensors. In another
variant, the sensors are mobile and self deploy. A collection of mobile sen-
sors may be placed into an unknown and potentially hazardous environ-
ment. Following this initial placement, the sensors relocate so as to obtain
maximum coverage of the unknown environment. They communicate the
information they gather to a base station outside of the environment being
sensed.
Maximizing Coverage Lifetime

When sensors are deployed in difficult-to-access environments, as is the case
in many military applications, a large number of sensors may be air-dropped
Routing and Security in WSNS • 333
into the region that is to be sensed. Assume that the sensors that survive the
air drop cover all targets that are to be sensed. Since the power supply of
a sensor cannot be replenished, a sensor becomes inoperable once it runs
out of energy. Define the life of a sensor network to be the earliest time at
which the network ceases to cover all targets. The life of a network can be
increased if it is possible to put redundant sensors (i.e., sensors not needed
to provide coverage of all targets) to sleep and awaken these sleeping sen-
sors when they are needed to restore target coverage. Sleeping sensors are
inactive while sensors that are awake are active. Inactive sensors consume
far less energy than active ones.
In a decentralized localized protocol, the set of active nodes provides
the desired coverage. A sleeping node wakes up when its sleep timer
expires and broadcasts a probing signal a distance d (d is called the prob-
ing range). If no active sensor is detected in this probing range, the sensor
moves into the active state. However, if an active sensor is detected in
the probing range, the sensor determines how long to sleep, sets its sleep
timer, and goes to sleep. In another distributed localized protocol, sensors
may turn themselves on and off. The network operates in rounds, where
each round has two phases. They are self-scheduling and sensing. In the
self-scheduling phase each sensor decides whether or not to go to sleep.
In the sensing phase, the active/awake sensors monitor the region. Sensor
s turns itself off in the self-scheduling phase if its neighbors are able to
monitor the entire sensing region of s. To make this determination, every
sensor broadcasts its location and sensing range. A backoff scheme is pro-
posed to avoid blind spots that would otherwise occur if two sensors turn
off simultaneously, each expecting the other to monitor part or all of its
sensing region. In this backoff scheme, each active sensor uses a random
delay before deciding whether or not it can go to sleep without affecting
sensing coverage.
Routing
Traditional routing algorithms for sensor networks are data-centric in
nature. Given the unattended and untethered nature of sensor networks,
routing must be collaborative as well as energy conserving for individual
sensors. In the sensor-centric paradigm, the sensors collaborate to achieve
common network-wide goals such as route reliability and path length
while minimizing individual costs. The sensor-centric model can be used
to define the quality of routing paths in the network (also called path
weakness).
Energy conservation is an overriding concern in the development of

any routing algorithm for wireless sensor networks. This is because such
networks are often located such that it is difficult, if not impossible, to
replenish the energy supply of a sensor. Three forms — unicast, broadcast,
and multicast — of the routing problem have received significant attention.
The overall objective of these algorithms is to either maximize the lifespan
(earliest time at which a communication fails) or the capacity of the net-
work (amount of data traffic carried by the network over some fixed period
of time).
Assume that the wireless network is represented as a weighted
directed graph G that has n vertices/nodes and e edges. Each node of
G represents a node of the wireless network. The weight w(i, j) of the
directed edge (i, j) is the amount of energy needed by node i to transmit
a unit message to node j.
Unicast
In a unicast, one wants to send a message from a source sensor s to a
destination sensor t. The five strategies that may be used in the selection
of the routing path for this transmission are developed. The first of these
is to use a minimum-energy path (i.e., a path in G for which the sum
of the edge weights is minimum) from s to t. Such a path may be com-
puted using Dijkstra’s shortest path algorithm. However, since in prac-
tice messages between several pairs of source-destination sensors need
to be routed in succession, using a minimum-energy path for a message
may prevent the successful routing of future messages. As an example,
consider the graph of Figure 10.1. Suppose that sensors x, b1, • • •, bn
initially have 10 units of energy each and that u1, • • •, un each have
1 unit. Assume that the first unicast is a unit-length message from x to y.
There are exactly two paths from x to y in the sensor network of Figure 10.1.
The upper path, which begins at x, goes through each of the uis, and ends at y,
uses n + 1 energy units; the lower path uses 2(n + 1) energy units. Using the
minimum energy path depletes the energy in node ui, 1 ≤ i ≤ n. Following
the unicast, sensors u1, • • •, un are unable to forward any messages. So an
ensuing request to unicast from uI to uJ, i < j will fail. On the other hand, had
one used the lower path, which is not a minimum energy path, one would
not deplete the energy in any sensor and all unit-length unicasts that could
be done in the initial network also can be done in the network following the
first x to y unicast.
1 1 1 un
1 u1 u2
1
x y
2 2
2 2 2
b1 b2 bn
FIGURE 10.1 A sensor network.
The remaining four strategies propose an attempt to overcome the myopic

nature of the minimum-energy path strategy, which sacrifices network lifespan
and capacity in favor of total remaining energy. Since routing decisions must
be made in an online fashion (i.e., if the ith message is to be sent from si to ti,
the path for message i must be decided without knowledge of sj and tj, j > i),
we seek an online algorithm with a good competitive ratio. It is easy to see that
there can be no online unicast algorithm with constant competitive ratio with
respect to network lifespan and capacity. For example, consider the network
of Figure 10.1. Assume that the energy in each node is 1 unit. Suppose that
the first unicast is from x to y. Without knowledge of the remaining unicasts,
one must select either the upper or lower path from x to y. If the upper path
is chosen and the source-destination pairs for the remaining unicasts turn out
to be (u1, u2), (u2, u3), …, (un–1, un), (un, y) then the online algorithm routes
only the first unicast, whereas an optimal offline algorithm would route all n
+ 1 unicasts, giving a competitive ratio of n + 1. The same ratio results when
the lower path is chosen and the source-destination pairs for the remaining
unicasts are (b1, b2), (b2, b3), …, (bn–1, bn), (bn, y). To maximize lifespan and/or
capacity, one needs to achieve some balance between the energy consumed by
a route and the minimum residual energy at the nodes along the chosen route.
Multicast and Broadcast
Using an omnidirectional antenna, node i can transmit the same unit mes-
sage to nodes j1, j2, …, jk, using
ewireless = max{w(i, jq) ∣ 1 ≤ q ≤ k}
energy rather than
K
ewired = ∑ w(i, jq)
(q=1)
energy. Since, ewireless ≤ ewired, the reduction in energy needed to broadcast

from one node to several others in a wireless network over that needed in a
wired network is referred to as the wireless broadcast advantage.
To broadcast from a source s, use a broadcast tree T, which is a spanning

tree of G that is rooted at s. The energy, e(u), required by a node of T to
broadcast to its children is
e(u) = max{w(u, v) ∣ v is a child of u}
Note that for a leaf node u, e(u) = 0. The energy, e(T), required by the broad-
cast tree to broadcast a unit message from the source to all other nodes is,
K
e(T)= ∑ e(u)
(u)
The DSA (Dijkstra’s shortest paths algorithm) heuristic constructs a short-

est path from the source node s to every other vertex in G. The constructed
shortest paths are superimposed to obtain a tree T rooted at s. Finally, a
sweep is performed over the nodes of T. In this sweep, nodes are examined
in ascending order of their index (i.e., in the order 1, 2, 3, ....., n). The trans-
mission energyτ(i) for node i is determined to be
τ(i) = max{w(i, j) ∣ j is a child of i in T}
If using τ(i) energy, node i is able to reach any descendents other than its
children, then these descendents are promoted in the broadcast tree T and
become additional children of i. The MST (minimum spanning tree) uses
Prim’s algorithm to construct a minimum-cost spanning tree (the cost of
a spanning tree is the sum of its edge weights). The constructed spanning
tree is restructured by performing a sweep over the nodes to reduce the
total energy required by the tree.
The BIP (broadcast incremental power) heuristic begins with a tree T that
comprises only the source node s. The remaining nodes are added to T one
node at a time. The next node u to add to T is selected so that u is a neigh-
bor of a node in T and e (T U{u}) – e(T) is minimum. Once the broadcast
tree is constructed, a sweep is done to restructure the tree so as to reduce
the required energy.
Data Collection and Distribution

In the data collection problem, a base station is to collect sensed data from
all deployed sensors. The data distribution problem is the inverse problem
in which the base station has to send data to the deployed sensors (differ-
ent sensors receive different data from the base station). In both of these
problems, the objective is to complete the task in the smallest amount of
time. The data collection and distribution problems are symmetric. Hence,
one can derive an optimal data collection algorithm from an optimal data
distribution algorithm and vice versa. Therefore, it is necessary to study just

one of these two problems explicitly. Here we focus on data distribution.
Let S1, ...., Sn be n sensors and let S0 represent the base station. Let pi be
the number of data packets the base station has to send to sensor i, 1 ≤ i ≤ n.
p = [p1, p2, ...., pn] is the transmission vector.
The distribution of these packets to the sensors is done in a synchronous
time-slotted fashion. In each time slot, an Si may either receive or transmit
(but not both) a packet. To facilitate the transmission of the packets, each
Si has an antenna whose range is r. In the unidirectional antenna model, Si
receives a packet only if that packet is sent in its direction from an antenna
located at most r away. Because of interference, a transmission from Si to Sj
is successful if the following are true:
1. j is in range, that is d(i, j) ≤ r, where d(i, j) is the distance between Si
and Sj
2. j is not, itself, transmitting in this time slot
3. There is no interference from other transmissions in the direction of j
Formally, every Sk, k ≠ i, that is transmitting in this time slot in the direc-
tion of Sj is out of range. Here, out of range means d(k, j) ≥ (1 + δ)r, where
δ > 0 is an interference constant.
In the omni directional antenna model, a packet transmitted by an Si is
received by all Sj (regardless of direction) that are in the antenna’s range.
The constraints on successful transmission are the same as those for the
unidirectional antenna model except that all references to “direction” are
dropped.
Sensor Fusion
The reliability of a sensor system is enhanced through the use of redun-
dancy. That is, each point or region is monitored by multiple sensors. A
redundant sensor system is faced with the problem of fusing or combining
the data reported by each of the sensors monitoring a specified point or
region. Suppose that k > 1 sensors monitor point p. Let mi, 1 ≤ i ≤ k be
the measurement recorded by sensor i for point p. These k measurements
may differ because of inherent differences in the k sensors, the relative
location of a sensor with respect to p, as well as because one or more sen-
sors is faulty. Let V be the real value for p. The objective of sensor fusion is
to take the k measurements, some of which may be faulty, and determine
either the correct measurement V or a range in which the correct measure-

ment lies.
10.2 Routing Protocols

All applications of sensor networks have the requirement of sending the
sensed data from multiple points to a common destination called a sink.
Resource management is required in sensor nodes regarding transmission
power, storage, on-board energy, and processing capacity. There are vari-
ous routing protocols that have been proposed for routing data in wireless
sensor networks due to such problems. The proposed mechanisms of rout-
ing consider the architecture and application requirements along with the
characteristics of sensor nodes. There are few distinct routing protocols
that are based on quality of service awareness or network flow, whereas all
other routing protocols can be classified as hierarchical or location based
and data-centric.
The routing protocols which are data-centric are based on query and
depend on the naming of desired data due to which many redundant trans-
missions are eliminated. The clustering of nodes in hierarchical routing
protocols aims to save the energy by cluster heads that can do some aggre-
gation and reduction of data. The routing protocols that are location based
relay data to the desired destination instead of the whole network by uti-
lizing positioning information. In some applications there is requirement
of QoS along with the routing functions that are based on network flow
modeling.
The other factors which effect routing design are the overhead and data
latency. Data latency during network latency is caused by data aggrega-
tion and multi-hop relays due to which real-time data is infeasible in these
protocols, while in some protocols there are excessive overheads created
for the implementation of their algorithm which are not suitable for the
networks that energy constrained. So data latency and overhead are the two
important factors which affect the designing of routing protocols of WSNs.
Data-Centric Protocols
The sink is used to send queries to certain regions and waits for data from
sensors that are located in selected regions in data-centric routing proto-
cols. As queries are used for the requested data, attribute-based naming in
order to specify the properties of data is necessary. The first data-centric
routing protocol between nodes that considers data negotiation is Sensor

protocol for information via negotiation (SPIN) for energy saving and elimi-
nation of redundant data.
Flooding and Gossiping
In order to relay data in sensor networks without the need for any rout-
ing algorithms and topology maintenance, the two classical methods are
flooding and gossiping. A sensor node broadcasts a data packet to all its
neighbors, and this process continues until the destination is found, and
this technique is known as flooding. In gossiping the packet is not sent to all
neighboring nodes but to selected random neighbors which select another
random neighbor and in this packet arrives at the destination.
Sensor Protocols for Information via Negotiation
The key feature of SPIN is that meta-data before transmission are exchanged
between sensors through a data advertisement mechanism. The new data is
advertised by each sensor node to its neighbors, and the interested neighbors
which do not have the data send a request message in order to retrieve data.
The classic problems of flooding are solved by SPIN’s meta-data negotiation.
Directed Diffusion
In this protocol the idea is to diffuse data by using a naming scheme for the
data through sensor nodes. To get rid of unnecessary operations of network
layer routing in order to save energy is the main idea behind using such a
scheme.
Energy-Aware Routing
To increase the lifespan of a network, the method of using set of sub-opti-
mal paths occasionally is introduced. Depending on the energy consump-
tion of the path, these paths are chosen by means of probability functions.
The approach is concerned with the main metric of network survivability.
This protocol has the following phases:
• Setup phase
• Data communication and route maintenance phase
Rumor Routing
Another variation of Directed Diffusion is rumor routing, which is pro-
posed for contexts in which geographic routing criteria are not applicable.
The query is flooded in the entire network in Directed Diffusion when

there is no geographic criterion to diffuse tasks. Thus, the use of flooding is
unnecessary in cases where a little amount of data is requested.
Gradient-based Routing
Gradient based routing (GBR) is to maintain a number of hops when the
interest is diffused through the network. So minimum numbers of hops are
discovered by each hop to the sink that are called the node’s height. The
gradient is the difference between the node’s height and that of its neighbor
on that link. With the largest gradient a packet is forwarded on the link.
Hierarchical Protocols
The nodes in hierarchical routing are involved in multi-hop communication
within a particular cluster in order to efficiently maintain the energy con-
sumption, and the transmitted messages to the sink are decreased by per-
forming data aggregation and fusion. The formation of a cluster is typically
based on a sensor’s proximity to the cluster and the energy reserve of sen-
sors. Networking clustering has been pursued in some routing approaches
in order to allow the system to cope with additional load and enable to cover
a large area of interest without degrading the service. The following are the
hierarchical routing protocols:
LEACH (Low Energy Adaptive Clustering Hierarchy)
PEGASIS (Power Efficient Gathering in Sensor Information System) and
Hierarchical-PEGASIS
TEEN (Threshold Sensitive Energy Efficient Sensor Network Protocol)
and APTEEN. Energy-aware routing for cluster-based sensor networks &
Self-organizing protocol
Location-based Protocols
Location information is required for nodes in sensor networks in most of
the routing protocols. Energy consumption is estimated by calculating the
distance between two particular nodes for which location information is
required. As there are no schemes like IP addresses, data is routed in an
energy-efficient way by utilizing location information. By using the loca-
tion of sensors, the query is diffused only in a particular region which is
known to be sensed, and a significant number of transmissions will be
eliminated. The protocols are designed primarily for MANETs consid-
ering the mobility of nodes, whereas they are also applicable to sensor
networks in which nodes are fixed or mobility is less. Location-based

protocols are as follows:
• Minimum energy communication network (MECN) and small
minimum communication energy network (SMECN)
• Geographic Adaptive Fidelity (GAF)
• Geographic and Energy aware routing (GEAR)
Network flow and QoS-aware Protocols

Among the various routing protocols proposed for sensor networks most of
them fit in the classification; however, some pursue a somewhat different
approach such as QoS and network flow. While setting up the paths in a sen-
sor network, end-to-end delay requirements are considered in QoS-aware
protocols. These protocols are:
• Maximum lifespan energy routing
• Maximum lifespan data gathering
• Minimum cost forwarding
• Sequential assignment routing (SAR)
• Energy-aware QoS routing protocol
• SPEED (A Stateless Protocol for Realtime Communication in Sensor
Networks)
AODV Routing Protocol

There are two types of routing protocols, which are reactive and proac-
tive. In reactive routing protocols the routes are created only when source
wants to send data to a destination, whereas proactive routing protocols
are table driven. Because a reactive routing protocol Ad hoc On-demand
Distance Vector uses traditional routing tables, one entry per destination
and sequence numbers are used to determine whether routing information
is up-to-date and to prevent routing loops. The maintenance of time-based
states is an important feature of AODV, which means that a routing entry
which is not recently used is expired. The neighbors are notified in case of
route breakage. The discovery of the route from source to destination is
based on query and reply cycles, and intermediate nodes store the route
information in the form of route table entries along the route. Control mes-
sages used for the discovery and breakage of the route are as follows:
• Route Request Message (RREQ)
• Route Reply Message (RREP)
• Route Error Message (RERR)
• HELLO Messages
Route Request (RREQ)

A route request packet is flooded through the network when a route is not
available for the destination from the source. The parameters contained in
the route request packet are presented in the following table:
Table 10.1 Route Request Parameters
Source Request ID Source Destination Destination Hop count

Address Sequence Address Sequence
Number Number
A RREQ is identified by the pair source address and request ID; each time
when the source node sends a new RREQ, the request ID is incremented.
After receiving a request message, each node checks the request ID and
source address pair. The new RREQ is discarded if there is already an
RREQ packet with same pair of parameters. A node that has no route entry
for the destination rebroadcasts the RREQ with an incremented hop count
parameter. A route reply (RREP) message is generated and sent back to the
source if a node has a route with a sequence number greater than or equal
to that of RREQ.
Route Reply (RREP)
On having a valid route to the destination or if the node is the destination,
an RREP message is sent to the source by the node. The following param-
eters are contained in the route reply message:
Table 10.2 Route Reply Parameters
Source Destination Destination Hop Life

Address Address Sequence Count Time
Number
Route Error Message (RERR)

The neighborhood nodes are monitored. When a route that is active is lost,
the neighborhood nodes are notified by route error message (RERR) on
both sides of the link.
Hello Messages
The HELLO messages are broadcast in order to know neighborhood nodes.
The neighborhood nodes are directly communicated. In AODV, HELLO
messages are broadcast in order to inform the neighbors about the activa-
tion of the link. These messages are not broadcast because of short time to
live (TTL) with a value equal to one.
Discovery of Route
When a source node does not have routing information about destination,
the process of the discovery of the route starts for a node with which the
source wants to communicate. The process is initiated by the broadcasting
of an RREQ, as shown in Figure 10.2. On receiving the RREP message, the
route is established. If multiple RREP messages with different routes are
received, then routing information is updated with an RREP message of a
greater sequence number.
Destination
Propagation of RREQ
Reverse Route Entry
Path of the RREP

Source
FIGURE 10.2 Discovery of route.
Setup of Reverse Path

The reverse path to the node is noted by each node during the transmission
of RREQ messages. The RREP message travels along this path after the
destination node is found. The addresses of the neighbors from which the
RREQ packets are received are recorded by each node.
Setup of Forward Path

The reverse path is used to send RREP messages back to the source, but a
forward path is set up during transmission of the RREP message. This for-
ward path can be called a reverse to the reverse path. The data transmission
is started as soon as this forward path is set up. The locally buffered data
packets waiting for transmission are transmitted in a FIFO-queue.
DSR Routing Protocol

The Dynamic Source Routing (DSR) protocol is specifically designed for
multi-hop ad hoc networks. The difference in DSR and other routing pro-
tocols is that it uses source routing supplied by the packet’s originator to
determine the packet’s path through the network instead of independent
hop-by-hop routing decisions made by each node. The packet in source
routing which is going to be routed through the network carries the com-
plete ordered list of nodes in its header through which the packet will pass.
Fresh routing information is not needed to be maintained in intermediate
nodes in the design of source routing, since all the routing decisions are
contained in the packet by themselves.
DSR Route Discovery and Maintenance

DSR protocol is divided into two mechanisms which show the basic opera-
tion of DSR. The two mechanisms are:
• Route Discovery
• Route Maintenance
When a node S wants to send a packet to destination D, the route to des-

tination D is obtained by route discovery mechanism. In this mechanism
the source node S broadcasts a ROUTE REQUEST packet which in a con-
trolled manner is flooded through the network and answered in the form of
a ROUTE REPLY packet by the destination node or from the node which
has the route to the destination. The routes are kept in the Route Cache,
which to the same destination can store multiple routes. The nodes check
their route cache for a route that could answer the request before repropa-
gation of ROUTE REQUEST. The nodes do not expend effort on obtaining
or maintaining the routes that are not currently used for communication;
that is, the route discovery is initiated only on-demand.
The other mechanism is the route maintenance by which source node

S detects if the topology of the network has changed so that it can no lon-
ger use its route to the destination. If the two nodes that were listed as
neighbors on the route moved out of the range of each other and the link
becomes broken, the source node S is notified with a ROUTE ERROR
packet. The source node S can use any other known routes to the destina-
tion D, or the process of route discovery is invoked again to find a new route
to the destination. This is shown in Figure 10.3.
S B C D
Route Discovery
S S,B S,B,C
Broadcast
Request
Route
S,B, C,D S,B, C,D S,B, C,D

Route Maintenance
data sent S,(B), C,D S,B,(C),D S,B,C,(D)
C moves away
data sent S,(B), C,D S,B,(C),D
Forwarding
fails
B,CDead
Route Error
FIGURE 10.3 DSR Route discovery and maintenance.
10.3 Security in Wireless Sensor Networks

As wireless sensor networks continue to grow, so does the need for effective
security mechanisms. Because sensor networks may interact with sensitive
data and/or operate in hostile unattended environments, it is imperative
that these security concerns be addressed from the beginning of the system
design. However, due to inherent resource and computing constraints,
security in sensor networks poses different challenges from traditional
network/computer security. There is currently enormous research potential
in the field of wireless sensor network security. Thus, familiarity with the
current research in this field will benefit researchers greatly.
Wireless sensor networks are quickly gaining popularity due to the fact
that they are potentially low-cost solutions to a variety of real-world chal-
lenges. Their low cost provides a means to deploy large sensor arrays in a
variety of conditions capable of performing both military and civilian tasks.
But sensor networks also introduce severe resource constraints due to their
lack of data storage and power. Both of these represent major obstacles to
the implementation of traditional computer security techniques in a wire-
less sensor network. The unreliable communication channel and unattended
operation make the security defenses even harder. Indeed, wireless sensors
often have the processing characteristics of machines that are decades old (or
longer), and the industrial trend is to reduce the cost of wireless sensors while
maintaining similar computing power. With that in mind, many researchers
have begun to address the challenges of maximizing the processing capabili-
ties and energy reserves of wireless sensor nodes while also securing them
against attackers. Furthermore, due to the inherent unattended feature of
wireless sensor networks, physical attacks to sensors play an important role
in the operation of wireless sensor networks. The main aspects of wireless
sensor network security can be grouped into four major categories:
• The obstacles to sensor network security
• The requirements of a secure wireless sensor network
• Attacks
• Defensive measures
10.4 Obstacles of Sensor Security

A wireless sensor network is a special network which has many constraints
compared to a traditional computer network. Due to these constraints it
is difficult to directly employ the existing security approaches to the area
of wireless sensor networks. Therefore, to develop useful security mecha-
nisms while borrowing the ideas from the current security techniques, it is
necessary to know and understand these constraints first.
Very Limited Resources
All security approaches require a certain amount of resources for imple-
mentation, including data memory, code space, and energy to power the
sensor. However, currently these resources are very limited in a tiny wire-
less sensor.
Limited Memory and Storage Space

A sensor is a tiny device with only a small amount of memory and storage
space for the code. In order to build an effective security mechanism, it is
necessary to limit the code size of the security algorithm. For example, one
common sensor type (TelosB) has an 16-bit, 8 MHz RISC CPU with only
10K RAM, 48K program memory, and 1024K flash storage. With such a lim-
itation, the software built for the sensor must also be quite small. The total
code space of TinyOS, the operating system for wireless sensors, is approxi-
mately 4K, and the core scheduler occupies only 178 bytes. Therefore, the
code size for the all security related code must also be small.
Power Limitation
Energy is the biggest constraint to wireless sensor capabilities. Assume
that once sensor nodes are deployed in a sensor network, they cannot be
easily replaced (high operating cost) or recharged (high cost of sensors).
Therefore, the battery charge taken with them to the field must be con-
served to extend the life of the individual sensor node and the entire sensor
network. When implementing a cryptographic function or protocol within a
sensor node, the energy impact of the added security code must be consid-
ered. When adding security to a sensor node, one also has to be interested
in the impact that security has on the lifespan of a sensor (i.e., its battery
life). The extra power consumed by sensor nodes due to security is related
to the processing required for security functions (e.g., encryption, decryp-
tion, signing data, verifying signatures), the energy required to transmit
the security-related data or overhead (e.g., initialization vectors needed for
encryption/decryption), and the energy required to store security param-
eters in a secure manner (e.g., cryptographic key storage).
Unreliable Communication
Certainly, unreliable communication is another threat to sensor security.
The security of the network relies heavily on a defined protocol, which in
turn depends on communication.
Unreliable Transfer
Normally the packet-based routing of the sensor network is connectionless
and thus inherently unreliable. Packets may get damaged due to channel
errors or dropped at highly congested nodes. The result is lost or miss-
ing packets. Furthermore, the unreliable wireless communication channel
also results in damaged packets. Higher channel error rate also forces the
software developer to devote resources to error handling. More importantly,

if the protocol lacks the appropriate error handling it is possible to lose criti-
cal security packets. This may include, for example, a cryptographic key.
Conflicts
Even if the channel is reliable, the communication may still be unreliable.
This is due to the broadcast nature of the wireless sensor network. If packets
meet in the middle of transfer, conflicts will occur and the transfer itself will
fail. In a crowded (high density) sensor network, this can be a major problem.
Latency
The multi-hop routing, network congestion and node processing can lead to
greater latency in the network, thus making it difficult to achieve synchro-
nization among sensor nodes. The synchronization issues can be critical
to sensor security, where the security mechanism relies on critical event
reports and cryptographic key distribution.
Unattended Operation
Depending on the function of the particular sensor network, the sensor
nodes may be left unattended for long periods of time.
Exposure to Physical Attacks
The sensor may be deployed in an environment open to adversaries, bad
weather, and so on. The likelihood that a sensor suffers a physical attack in
such an environment is therefore much higher than typical PCs, which are
located in a secure place and mainly face attacks from a network.
Managed Remotely
Remote management of a sensor network makes it virtually impossible to
detect physical tampering (i.e., through tamperproof seals) and physical
maintenance issues (e.g., battery replacement). Perhaps the most extreme
example of this is a sensor node used for remote reconnaissance missions
behind enemy lines. In such a case, the node may not have any physical
contact with friendly forces once deployed.
No Central Management Point
A sensor network should be a distributed network without a central manage-
ment point. This will increase the vitality of the sensor network. However,
if designed incorrectly, it will make the network organization difficult, inef-
ficient, and fragile.
10.5 Security Requirements

A sensor network is a special type of network. It shares some commonali-
ties with a typical computer network, but also poses unique requirements
of its own.
Data Confidentiality
Data confidentiality is the most important issue in network security. Every
network with any security focus will typically address this problem first. In
sensor networks, the confidentiality relates to the following:
• A sensor network should not leak sensor readings to its neighbors.
Especially in a military application, the data stored in the sensor node
may be highly sensitive.
• In many applications nodes communicate highly sensitive data, e.g.,
key distribution, therefore it is extremely important to build a secure
channel in a wireless sensor network.
• Public sensor information, such as sensor identities and public
keys, should also be encrypted to some extent to protect against
traffic analysis attacks. The standard approach for keeping sensitive
data secret is to encrypt the data with a secret key that only intended
receivers possess, thus achieving confidentiality.
Data Integrity
With the implementation of confidentiality, an adversary may be unable to
steal information. However, this doesn’t mean the data is safe. The adver-
sary can change the data, so as to send the sensor network into disarray. For
example, a malicious node may add some fragments or manipulate the data
within a packet. This new packet can then be sent to the original receiver.
Data loss or damage can even occur without the presence of a malicious
node due to the harsh communication environment. Thus, data integrity
ensures that any received data has not been altered in transit.
Data Freshness
Even if confidentiality and data integrity are assured, it also needs to
ensure the freshness of each message. Informally, data freshness sug-
gests that the data is recent, and it ensures that no old messages have
been replayed. This requirement is especially important when there are
shared-key strategies employed in the design. Typically shared keys need
to be changed over time. However, it takes time for new shared keys to be
propagated to the entire network. In this case, it is easy for the adversary
to use a replay attack. Also, it is easy to disrupt the normal work of the
sensor, if the sensor is unaware of the new key change time. To solve this
problem a time-related counter can be added into the packet to ensure
data freshness.
Availability
Adjusting the traditional encryption algorithms to fit within the wireless
sensor network is not free, and will introduce some extra costs. Some
approaches choose to modify the code to reuse as much code as possible.
Some approaches try to make use of additional communication to achieve
the same goal. Some approaches force strict limitations on the data access,
or propose an unsuitable scheme (such as a central point scheme) in order
to simplify the algorithm. But all these approaches weaken the availability
of a sensor and sensor network for the following reasons:
• Additional computation consumes additional energy. If no more
energy exists, the data will no longer be available.
• Additional communication also consumes more energy. As
communication increases so too does the chance of incurring a
communication conflict.
• A single point failure will be introduced if using the central point
scheme. This greatly threatens the availability of the network. The
requirement of security not only affects the operation of the network,
but also is highly important in maintaining the availability of the whole
network.
Self-organization
A wireless sensor network is a typically an ad hoc network, which requires
every sensor node be independent and flexible enough to be self-organizing
and self-healing according to different situations. There is no fixed
infrastructure available for the purpose of network management in a sensor
network. This inherent feature brings a great challenge to wireless sensor
network security as well. For example, the dynamics of the whole network
inhibit the idea of pre-installation of a shared key between the base station and
all sensors. In the context of applying public-key cryptography techniques
in sensor networks, an efficient mechanism for public-key distribution is
necessary as well. In the same way that distributed sensor networks must
self-organize to support multi-hop routing, they must also self-organize

to conduct key management and build trust relations among sensors. If
self-organization is lacking in a sensor network, the damage resulting from
an attack or even the hazardous environment may be devastating.
Time Synchronization
Most sensor network applications rely on some form of time synchroniza-
tion. In order to conserve power, an individual sensor’s radio may be turned
off for periods of time. Furthermore, sensors may wish to compute the
end-to-end delay of a packet as it travels between two pair-wise sensors. A
more collaborative sensor network may require group synchronization for
tracking applications, and so on.
Secure Localization
Often, the utility of a sensor network will rely on its ability to accurately and
automatically locate each sensor in the network. A sensor network designed
to locate faults will need accurate location information in order to pinpoint
the location of a fault. Unfortunately, an attacker can easily manipulate non-
secured location information by reporting false signal strengths, replaying
signals, and so forth. A device’s position is accurately computed from a
series of known reference points. In this system, authenticated ranging and
distance bounding are used to ensure accurate location of a node. Because
of distance bounding, an attacking node can only increase its claimed dis-
tance from a reference point. However, to ensure location consistency, an
attacking node would also have to prove that its distance from another ref-
erence point is shorter. Since it cannot do this, a node manipulating the
localization protocol can be found.
The SeRLoc (Secure Range-Independent Localization) algorithm uses
locators that transmit beacon information. It is assumed that the locators are
trusted and cannot be compromised. Furthermore, each locator is assumed
to know its own location. A sensor computes its location by listening for
the beacon information sent by each locator. The beacons include the loca-
tor’s location. Using all of the beacons that a sensor node detects, a node
computes an approximate location based on the coordinates of the locators.
Using a majority vote scheme, the sensor then computes an overlapping
antenna region. The final computed location is the “center of gravity” of
the overlapping antenna region. All beacons transmitted by the locators are
encrypted with a shared global symmetric key that is pre-loaded to the sen-
sor prior to deployment. Each sensor also shares a unique symmetric key
with each locator. This key is also pre-loaded on each sensor.
Authentication
An adversary is not just limited to modifying the data packet. It can change
the whole packet stream by injecting additional packets. So, the receiver
needs to ensure that the data used in any decision-making process origi-
nates from the correct source. On the other hand, when constructing the
sensor network, authentication is necessary for many administrative tasks
(e.g., network reprogramming or controlling sensor node duty cycle). As
discussed previously, message authentication is important for many applica-
tions in sensor networks. Informally, data authentication allows a receiver
to verify that the data really is sent by the claimed sender. In the case of
two-party communication, data authentication can be achieved through a
purely symmetric mechanism: the sender and the receiver share a secret
key to compute the message authentication code (MAC) of all communi-
cated data.
The basic idea of the μTESLA, another system, is to achieve asymmet-
ric cryptography by delaying the disclosure of the symmetric keys. In this
case a sender will broadcast a message generated with a secret key. After a
certain period of time, the sender will disclose the secret key. The receiver
is responsible for buffering the packet until the secret key has been dis-
closed. After disclosure the receiver can authenticate the packet, provided
that the packet was received before the key was disclosed. One limitation
of μTESLA is that some initial information must be unicast to each sensor
node before authentication of broadcast messages can begin. An enhance-
ment to the μTESLA system is that it uses broadcasting of the key chain
commitments rather than μTESLA’s unicasting technique. They present
a series of schemes starting with a simple pre-determination of key chains
and finally settling on a multi-level key chain technique. The multi-level key
chain scheme uses pre-determination and broadcasting to achieve a scal-
able key distribution technique that is designed to be resistant to denial of
service attacks, including jamming.
10.6 Attacks
Sensor networks are particularly vulnerable to several key types of attacks.
Attacks can be performed in a variety of ways, most notably as denial of
service attacks, but also through traffic analysis, privacy violation, physical
attacks, and so on. Denial of service attacks on wireless sensor networks can
range from simply jamming the sensor’s communication channel to more
sophisticated attacks designed to violate the 802.11 MAC protocol or any

other layer of the wireless sensor network. Due to the potential asymmetry
in power and computational constraints, guarding against a well orchestrated
denial of service attack on a wireless sensor network can be nearly impos-
sible. A more powerful node can easily jam a sensor node and effectively
prevent the sensor network from performing its intended duty. Attacks on
wireless sensor networks are not limited to simply denial of service attacks,
but rather encompass a variety of techniques including node takeovers,
attacks on the routing protocols, and attacks on a node’s physical security.
Definition
A denial of service attack defined as “any event that diminishes or elimi-
nates a network’s capacity to perform its expected function.” Unfortunately,
wireless sensor networks cannot afford the computational overhead neces-
sary in implementing many of the typical defensive strategies. What makes
the prospect of denial of service attacks even more alarming is the pro-
jected use of sensor networks in highly critical and sensitive applications.
For example, a sensor network designed to alert building occupants in the
event of a fire could be highly susceptible to a denial of service attack. Even
worse, such an attack could result in the deaths of building occupants due
to the non-operational fire detection network. Other possible uses for wire-
less sensors include the monitoring of traffic flows, which may include the
control of traffic lights, and so forth. A denial of service attack on such a
sensor network could prove very costly, especially on major roads.
Types of Denial of Service attacks
A standard attack on wireless sensor networks is simply to jam a node or set
of nodes. Jamming, in this case, is simply the transmission of a radio signal
that interferes with the radio frequencies being used by the sensor network.
The jamming of a network can come in two forms: constant jamming, and
intermittent jamming. Constant jamming involves the complete jamming
of the entire network. No messages are able to be sent or received. If the
jamming is only intermittent, then nodes are able to exchange messages
periodically, but not consistently. This too can have a detrimental impact on
the sensor network as the messages being exchanged between nodes may
be time sensitive.
Attacks can also be made on the link layer itself. One possibility is that
an attacker may simply intentionally violate the communication protocol,
for example, Zigbee or IEEE 801.11b (Wi-Fi) protocol, and continually
transmit messages in an attempt to generate collisions. Such collisions

would require the retransmission of any packet affected by the collision.
Using this technique it would be possible for an attacker to simply deplete
a sensor node’s power supply by forcing too many retransmissions. At the
routing layer, a node may take advantage of a multi-hop network by simply
refusing to route messages. This could be done intermittently or constantly
with the net result being that any neighbor who routes through the mali-
cious node will be unable to exchange messages with, at least, part of the
network. The transport layer is also susceptible to attack, as in the case of
flooding. Flooding can be as simple as sending many connection requests to
a susceptible node. In this case, resources must be allocated to handle the
connection request. Eventually a node’s resources will be exhausted, thus
rendering the node useless.
The Sybil Attack
The Sybil Attack is described as it relates to wireless sensor networks. Simply
put, the Sybil attack is defined as a “malicious device illegitimately taking on
multiple identities.” It was originally described as an attack able to defeat
the redundancy mechanisms of distributed data storage systems in peer-to-
peer networks. In addition to defeating distributed data storage systems,
the Sybil attack is also effective against routing algorithms, data aggrega-
tion, voting, fair resource allocation, and foiling misbehaviour detection.
Regardless of the target (voting, routing, aggregation), the Sybil algorithm
functions similarly. All of the techniques involve utilizing multiple identi-
ties. For instance, in a sensor network voting scheme, the Sybil attack might
utilize multiple identities to generate additional “votes.” Similarly, to attack
the routing protocol, the Sybil attack would rely on a malicious node taking
on the identity of multiple nodes, and thus routing multiple paths through
a single malicious node.
Traffic Analysis Attacks
Wireless sensor networks are typically composed of many low-power sen-
sors communicating with a few relatively robust and powerful base stations.
It is not unusual, therefore, for data to be gathered by the individual nodes
where it is ultimately routed to the base station. Often, for an adversary to
effectively render the network useless, the attacker can simply disable the
base station.
To make matters worse, two attacks can identify the base station in a
network (with high probability) without even understanding the contents
of the packets (if the packets are themselves encrypted). A rate monitoring
attack simply makes use of the idea that nodes closest to the base station
tend to forward more packets than those farther away from the base station.
An attacker need only monitor which nodes are sending packets and follow
those nodes that are sending the most packets. In a time correlation attack,
an adversary simply generates events and monitors to whom a node sends
its packets. To generate an event, the adversary could simply generate a
physical event that would be monitored by the sensor(s) in the area (turning
on a light, for instance).
Node Replication Attacks

Conceptually, a node replication attack is quite simple: an attacker seeks to
add a node to an existing sensor network by copying (replicating) the node
ID of an existing sensor node. A node replicated in this fashion can severely
disrupt a sensor network’s performance: packets can be corrupted or even
misrouted. This can result in a disconnected network, false sensor read-
ings, and so forth. If an attacker can gain physical access to the entire net-
work, he can copy cryptographic keys to the replicated sensor and can also
insert the replicated node into strategic points in the network. By inserting
the replicated nodes at specific network points, the attacker could easily
manipulate a specific segment of the network, perhaps by disconnecting it
altogether.
Attacks Against Privacy

Sensor network technology promises a vast increase in automatic data col-
lection capabilities through efficient deployment of tiny sensor devices.
While these technologies offer great benefits to users, they also exhibit
significant potential for abuse. Particularly relevant concerns are privacy
problems, since sensor networks provide increased data collection capa-
bilities. Adversaries can use even seemingly innocuous data to derive sensi-
tive information if they know how to correlate multiple sensor inputs. For
example, in the “panda-hunter problem,” the hunter can infer the posi-
tion of pandas by monitoring the traffic. The main privacy problem, how-
ever, is not that sensor networks enable the collection of information. In
fact, much information from sensor networks could probably be collected
through direct site surveillance. Rather, sensor networks aggravate the
privacy problem because they make large volumes of information easily
available through remote access. Hence, adversaries need not be physically
present to maintain surveillance. They can gather information in a low-risk,

anonymous manner. Remote access also allows a single adversary to moni-
tor multiple sites simultaneously. Some of the more common attacks against
sensor privacy are:
Monitor and Eavesdropping

This is the most obvious attack to privacy. By listening to the data, the
adversary could easily discover the communication contents. When the
traffic conveys the control information about the sensor network configura-
tion, which contains potentially more detailed information than accessible
through the location server, the eavesdropping can act effectively against
the privacy protection.
Traffic Analysis
Traffic analysis typically combines with monitoring and eavesdropping. An
increase in the number of transmitted packets between certain nodes could
signal that a specific sensor has registered activity. Through the analysis on
the traffic, some sensors with special roles or activities can be effectively
identified.
Camouflage
Adversaries can insert their node or compromise the nodes to hide in the
sensor network. After that these nodes can masquerade as a normal node
to attract the packets, then misroute the packets, for example, forward the
packets to the nodes conducting the privacy analysis. It is worth noting that
the current understanding of privacy in wireless sensor networks is imma-
ture, and more research is needed.
Physical Attacks
Sensor networks typically operate in hostile outdoor environments. In such
environments, the small form factor of the sensors, coupled with the unat-
tended and distributed nature of their deployment, make them highly sus-
ceptible to physical attacks, that is, threats due to physical node destruction.
Unlike many other attacks mentioned previously, physical attacks destroy
sensors permanently, so the losses are irreversible. For instance, attack-
ers can extract cryptographic secrets, tamper with the associated circuitry,
modify programming in the sensors, or replace them with malicious sensors
under the control of the attacker.
10.7 Defensive Measures

The measures for satisfying security requirements, and protecting the sen-
sor network from attacks, are as follows:
• key establishment in wireless sensor networks, which lays the
foundation for the security in a wireless sensor network, followed by
• defending against DoS attacks,
• secure broadcasting and multicasting,
• defending against attacks on routing protocols,
• defending against attacks on sensor privacy,
• intrusion detection,
• secure data aggregation,
• defending against physical attacks, and
• trust management.
Key Establishment
One security aspect that receives a great deal of attention in wireless sen-
sor networks is the area of key management. Wireless sensor networks
are unique (among other embedded wireless networks) in this aspect due
to their size, mobility, and computational/power constraints. This makes
secure key management an absolute necessity in most wireless sensor net-
work designs. Encryption and key management/establishment are so cru-
cial to the defense of a wireless sensor network, with nearly all aspects of
wireless sensor network defenses relying on solid encryption.
Key establishment is done using one of many public-key protocols. Key
exchange techniques use asymmetric cryptography, also called public key
cryptography. In this case, it is necessary to maintain two mathematically
related keys, one of which is made public while the other is kept private.
This allows data to be encrypted with the public key and decrypted only
with the private key. The problem with asymmetric cryptography, in a wire-
less sensor network, is that it is typically too computationally intensive for
the individual nodes in a sensor network. Symmetric cryptography is there-
fore the typical choice for applications that cannot afford the computational
complexity of asymmetric cryptography. Symmetric schemes utilize a single
shared key known only between the two communicating hosts. This shared
key is used for both encrypting and decrypting data. The traditional exam-
ple of symmetric cryptography is DES (Data Encryption Standard). The
use of DES, however, is quite limited due to the fact that it can be broken
relatively easily. In light of the shortcomings of DES, other symmetric cryp-
tography systems have been proposed including 3DES (Triple DES), RC5,
AES, and so on.
One major shortcoming of symmetric cryptography is the key exchange
problem. Simply put, the key exchange problem derives from the fact that
two communicating hosts must somehow know the shared key before they
can communicate securely. So the problem that arises is how to ensure
that the shared key is indeed shared between the two hosts who wish to
communicate and no other rogue hosts who may wish to eavesdrop. How
to distribute a shared key securely to communicating hosts is a non-trivial
problem since pre-distributing the keys is not always feasible.
Key Establishment and Associated Protocols
Random key pre-distribution schemes have several variants. A key pre-dis-
tribution scheme is used which relies on probabilistic key sharing among
nodes within the sensor network. Their system works by distributing a key
ring to each participating node in the sensor network before deployment.
Each key ring should consist of a number of randomly chosen keys from
a much larger pool of keys generated offline. Using this technique, it is
not necessary that each pair of nodes share a key. However, any two nodes
that do share a key may use the shared key to establish a direct link to one
another.
The LEAP (Light weight Extensible Authentication Protocol) protocol
takes an approach that utilizes multiple keying mechanisms. Their observa-
tion is that no single security requirement accurately suits all types of com-
munication in a wireless sensor network. Therefore, four different keys are
used, depending on whom the sensor node is communicating with. Sensors
are preloaded with an initial key from which further keys can be estab-
lished. As a security precaution, the initial key can be deleted after its use in
order to ensure that a compromised sensor cannot add additional compro-
mised nodes to the network.
In PIKE (Peer Intermediaries for Key Establishment in Sensor
Network) a mechanism is used for establishing a key between two sen-
sor nodes that is based on the common trust of a third node somewhere
within the sensor network. The nodes and their shared keys are spread over
the network such that for any two nodes A and B, there is a node C that
shares a key with both A and B. Therefore, the key establishment protocol
between A and B can be securely routed through C. A hybrid key estab-
lishment scheme makes use of the difference in computational and energy
constraints between a sensor node and the base station. They posit that an
individual sensor node possesses far less computational power and energy
than a base station. In light of this, they propose placing the major crypto-
graphic burden on the base station where the resources tend to be greater.
On the sensor side, symmetric-key operations are used in place of their
asymmetric alternatives.
The sensor and the base station authenticate based on elliptic curve
cryptography. Elliptic curve cryptography is often used in sensors due to the
fact that relatively small key lengths are required to achieve a given level of
security. Use certificates to establish the legitimacy of a public key. The cer-
tificates are based on an elliptic curve implicit certificate scheme. Such cer-
tificates are useful to ensure both that the key belongs to a device and that
the device is a legitimate member of the sensor network. Each node obtains
a certificate before joining the network using an out-of-band interface.
Public Key Cryptography
Two of the major techniques used to implement public-key cryptosystems
are RSA and elliptic curve cryptography (ECC). Both RSA and elliptic curve
cryptography are possible using 8-bit CPUs with ECC, demonstrating a
performance advantage over RSA. Another advantage is that ECC’s 160 bit
keys result in shorter messages during transmission compared the 1024 bit
RSA keys. In particular, the point multiplication operations in ECC are an
order of magnitude faster than private-key operations within RSA, and are
comparable (though somewhat slower) to the RSA public-key operation.
Defending against DoS Attacks
Table 10.3 Sensor Network Layers and DOS Attacks/Defenses
Network Layer Attacks Defenses

Jamming Spread-spectrum, Priority messages, lower duty
Physical cycle, region mapping, mode change
Tampering Tamper-proof, hiding
Network Layer Attacks Defenses

Collision Error correcting code
Link Exhaustion Rate limitation
Unfairness Small frames
Neglect and greed Redundancy, probing
Network Homing Encryption

and routing Misdirection Egress filtering, authorization monitoring
Black holes Authorization, monitoring, redundancy
Flooding Client puzzles
Transport
Desynchronization Authentication
In Table 10.3 the most common layers of a typical wireless sensor network

are summarized along with their attacks and defenses. Since denial of ser-
vice attacks are so common, effective defenses must be available to com-
bat them. One strategy in defending against the classic jamming attack is
to identify the jammed part of the sensor network and effectively route
around the unavailable portion. A two phase approach is described where
the nodes along the perimeter of the jammed region report their status
to their neighbors who then collaboratively define the jammed region and
simply route around it.
To handle jamming at the MAC layer, nodes might utilize a MAC
admission control that is rate limiting. This would allow the network to
ignore those requests designed to exhaust the power reserves of a node.
This, however, is not foolproof, as the network must be able to handle
any legitimately large traffic volumes. Overcoming rogue sensors that
intentionally misroute messages can be done at the cost of redundancy.
In this case, a sending node can send the message along multiple paths in
an effort to increase the likelihood that the message will ultimately arrive
at its destination. This has the advantage of effectively dealing with nodes
that may not be malicious, but rather may have simply failed, as it does
not rely on a single node to route its messages. To overcome the transport
layer flooding denial of service attack, suggest using client puzzles as an
effort to discern a node’s commitment to making the connection by utiliz-
ing some of their own resources. A server should force a client to commit
its own resources first. Further, a server should always force a client to
commit more resources up front than the server. This strategy would likely
be effective as long as the client has computational resources comparable

to those of the server.
Secure Broadcasting and Multicasting
The research community of wireless sensor networks has progressively
reached a consensus that the major communication pattern of wireless sen-
sor networks is broadcasting and multicasting, for example, 1-to-N, N-to-1,
and M-to-N, instead of the traditional point-to-point communication on the
Internet.
Traditional Broadcasting and Multicasting
Traditionally, multicasting and broadcasting techniques have been used
to reduce the communication and management overhead of sending a
single message to multiple receivers. In order to ensure that only certain
users receive the multicast or broadcast, encryption techniques must be
employed. In both a wired and wireless network this is done using cryptog-
raphy. The problem then is one of key management. To handle this, several
key management schemes have been devised: centralized group key man-
agement protocols, decentralized management protocols, and distributed
management protocols.
In the case of the centralized group key management protocols, a central
authority is used to maintain the group. Decentralized management proto-
cols, however, divide the task of group management among multiple nodes.
Each node that is responsible for part of the group management is responsible
for a certain subset of the nodes in the network. In the last case, distributed
key management protocols, there is no single key management authority.
Therefore, the entire group of nodes are responsible for key management.
In order to efficiently distribute keys, one well-known technique is to
use a logical key tree. Such a technique falls into the centralized group key
management protocols. This technique has been extended to wireless sen-
sor networks. While centralized solutions are often not ideal, in the case of
wireless sensor networks a centralized solution offers some utility. Such a
technique allows a more powerful base station to offload some of the com-
putations from the less powerful sensor nodes.
Secure Multicasting
A directed diffusion-based multicast technique described for use in wire-
less sensor networks that also takes advantage of a logical key hierarchy.
In a standard logical key hierarchy, a central key distribution center is
responsible for disbursing the keys throughout the network. The key dis-
tribution center, therefore, is the root of the key hierarchy while individual
nodes make up the leaves. The internal nodes of the key hierarchy contain
keys that are used in the re-keying process. Directed diffusion is a data-
centric, energy efficient dissemination technique that has been designed
for use in wireless sensor networks. In directed diffusion, a query is trans-
formed into an interest (due to the data-centric nature of the network). The
interest is then diffused throughout the network and the network begins
collecting data based on that interest.
The dissemination technique also sets up certain gradients designed to
draw events toward the interest. Data collected as a result of the interest
can then be sent back along the reverse path of the interest propagation.
Using the above mentioned directed diffusion technique, the logical key
hierarchy is enhanced to create a directed diffusion-based logical key hier-
archy. The logical key hierarchy technique provides mechanisms for nodes
joining and leaving groups where the key hierarchy is used to effectively
re-key all nodes within the leaving node’s hierarchy. The directed diffusion
is also used in node joining and leaving. When a node declares an intent
to join, for example, a join “interest” is generated which travels down the
gradient of “interest about interest to join.” When a node joins, a key set
is generated for the new node based on keys within the key hierarchy. In
this case, nodes are grouped based on locality and attach to a security tree.
However, they assume that nodes within the mobile network are somewhat
more powerful than a traditional sensor in a wireless sensor network.
Secure Broadcasting
A tree-based key distribution scheme is described and suggests a routing-
aware-based tree where the leaf nodes are assigned keys based on all relay
nodes above them. It takes advantage of routing information being more
energy efficient than routing schemes that arbitrarily arrange nodes into
the routing tree. Some schemes cases instead use geographic location infor-
mation (e.g., GPS) rather than routing information. In this case, however,
nodes (with the help of the geographic location system) are grouped into
clusters with the observation that nodes within a cluster will be able to
reach one another with a single broadcast. Using the cluster information, a
key hierarchy is constructed.
Defending against Attacks on Routing Protocols
Most current research has focused primarily on providing the most energy-
efficient routing. There is a great need for both secure and energy-efficient
routing protocols in wireless sensor networks, as attacks such as the sink-

hole, wormhole, and Sybil attacks demonstrate. As wireless sensor networks
continue to grow in size and utility, routing security must not be an after
thought, but rather they must be included as part of the overall sensor net-
work design.
Because wireless sensors are designed to have widely distributed power
and computationally constrained networks, efficient routing protocols must
be used in order to maximize the battery life of each node. There are a
variety of routing protocols in use in wireless sensor networks, so it is not
possible to provide a single security protocol that will be able to secure each
type of routing protocol.
In general, packet routing algorithms are used to exchange messages
with sensor nodes that are outside of a particular radio range. Sensors pack-
ets within radio range can be transmitted using a single hop. In such single-
hop networks security is still a concern, but it is more accurately addressed
through secure broadcasting and multicasting.
The first packet routing algorithm is based on node identifiers similar
to traditional routing. In this case, each sensor is identified by an address,
and routing to/from the sensor is based on the address. This is generally
considered inefficient in sensor networks, where nodes are expected to be
addressed by their location, rather than their identifier. A data-centric net-
work is one in which data are stored by name in the sensor network. Data
with the same name are stored at the same node. In fact, data need not be
stored anywhere near the sensor responsible for generating the data. When
searching the network, searches are therefore based on the data’s general
name, rather than the identity responsible for holding the data.
Techniques for Securing the Routing Protocol

An intrusion-tolerant routing protocol is designed to limit the scope of an
intruder’s destruction and route despite network intrusion without hav-
ing to identify the intruder. It should be noted that an intruder need not
be an actual intrusion on the sensor network, but might simply be a node
that is malfunctioning for no particularly malicious reason. Identifying an
actual intruder versus a malfunctioning node can be extremely difficult, and
for this reason make no distinction between the two. The first technique
described to mitigate the damage done by a potential intruder is to simply
employ the use of redundancy. In this case, multiple identical messages
are routed between a source and destination. A message is sent once along
several distinct paths with the hope that at least one will arrive at the desti-
nation. To discern which, if any, of the messages arriving at the destination
are authentic, an authentication scheme can be employed to confirm the
message’s integrity.
It also makes use of an assumed asymmetry between base stations and
wireless sensor nodes. They assume that the base stations are somewhat
less resource constrained than the individual sensor node. For this reason,
it is suggested that the base station be used to compute routing tables on
behalf of the individual sensor nodes. This is done in three phases. In the
first phase, the base station broadcasts a request message to each neighbor
which is then propagated throughout the network. In the second phase, the
base station collects local connectivity information from each node. Finally,
the base station computes a series of forwarding tables for each node. The
forwarding tables will include the redundancy information used for the
redundant message transmission.
There are several possible attacks that can be made on the routing pro-
tocol during each of the three stages. In the first phase, a node might spoof
the base station by sending a spurious request message. A malicious node
might also include a fake path(s) when forwarding the request message to
its neighbors. It may not even forward the request message at all. To coun-
ter this, use a scheme similar to μTESLA where one-way key chains are
used to identify a message originating from the base station.
The base station is to broadcast an encrypted message to all of its
neighbors. Only those neighbors who are trusted will possess the shared
key necessary to decrypt the message. The trusted neighbor(s) then adds
its location (for the return trip), encrypts the new message with its own
shared key and forwards the message to its neighbor closest to the desti-
nation. Once the message reaches the destination, the recipient is able to
authenticate the source (base station) using the MAC that will correspond
to the base station. To acknowledge or reply to the message, the destina-
tion node can simply forward a return message along the same trusted path
from which the first message was received.
A wormhole attack is one in which a malicious node eavesdrops on a
packet or series of packets, tunnels them through the sensor network to
another malicious node, and then replays the packets. This can be done
to misrepresent the distance between the two colluding nodes. It can also
be used to more generally disrupt the routing protocol by misleading the
neighbor discovery process. Often additional hardware, such as a directional
antenna, is used to defend against wormhole attacks. This, however, can be

cost-prohibitive when it comes to large-scale network deployment. Instead,
a visualization approach is used for identifying wormholes. It first com-
putes distance estimation between all neighbor sensors, including possible
existing wormholes. Using multi dimensional scaling, they then compute a
virtual layout of the sensor network. A surface smoothing strategy is then
used to adjust for round-off errors in the multi dimensional scaling. Finally,
the shape of the resulting virtual network is analyzed. If a wormhole exists
within the network, the shape of the virtual network will bend and curve
toward the offending nodes. Using this strategy the nodes that participate
in the wormhole can be identified and removed from the network. If a
network does not contain a wormhole, the virtual network will appear flat.
Defending against the Sybil Attack

To defend against the Sybil attack, the network needs some mechanism to
validate identity. It describes two methods to validate identities, direct vali-
dation and indirect validation. In direct validation a trusted node directly
tests whether the joining identity is valid. In indirect validation, another
trusted node is allowed to vouch for (or against) the validity of a joining
node. It primarily describes direct validation techniques, including a radio
resource test. In the radio test, a node assigns each of its neighbors a differ-
ent channel on which to communicate. The node then randomly chooses
a channel and listens. If the node detects a transmission on the channel, it
is assumed that the node transmitting on the channel is a physical node.
Similarly, if the node does not detect a transmission on the specified chan-
nel, the node assumes that the identity assigned to the channel is not a
physical identity. Another technique to defend against the Sybil attack is
to use random key pre-distribution techniques. The idea behind this tech-
nique is that with a limited number of keys on a key ring, a node that ran-
domly generates identities will not possess enough keys to take on multiple
identities and thus will be unable to exchange messages on the network,
due to the fact that the invalid identity will be unable to encrypt or decrypt
messages.
Detecting Node Replication Attacks

Two algorithms, randomized multicast and line-selected multicast, are
described. Randomized multicast is an evolution of a node-broadcasting
strategy. In this each sensor propagates an authenticated broadcast message
throughout the entire sensor network. Any node that receives a conflicting
or duplicated claim revokes the conflicting nodes. This strategy will work,
but the communication cost is far too expensive. In order to reduce the
communication cost, a deterministic multicast could be employed where
nodes would share their locations with a set of witness nodes. In this case,
witnesses are computed based on a node’s ID. In the event that a node has
been replicated on the network, two conflicting locations will be forwarded
to the same witness who can then revoke the offending nodes. But since a
witness is based on a node’s ID, it can easily be computed by an attacker
who can then compromise the witness nodes. Thus, securely utilizing a
deterministic multicast strategy would require too many witnesses and the
communication cost would be too high.
The line-selected multicast algorithm seeks to further reduce the com-
munication costs of the randomized multicast algorithm. It is based upon
rumor routing. The idea is that a location claim traveling from source s to
destination d will also travel through several intermediate nodes. If each of
these nodes records the location claim, then the path of the location claim
through the network can be thought of as a line segment.
Defending against Attacks on Sensor Privacy

Location information that is too precise can enable the identification of
a user, or make the continued tracking of movements feasible. This is a
threat to privacy. Anonymity mechanisms depersonalize the data before the
data is released, which present an alternative to privacy policy-based access
control.
Decentralize sensitive data: The basic idea of this approach is to distrib-
ute the sensed location data through a spanning tree, so that no single node
holds a complete view of the original data.
Secure communication channel: Using secure communication proto-
cols, such as SPINS, the eavesdropping and active attacks can be prevented.
Change Data Traffic

De-patterning the data transmissions can protect against traffic analysis.
For example, inserting some bogus data can intensively change the traffic
pattern when needed.
Node mobility: Making the sensor movable can be effective in defend-
ing privacy, especially the location. For example, the Cricket system is
a location-support system for in-building, mobile, location-dependent
applications. It allows applications running on mobile and static nodes to

learn their physical location by using listeners that hear and analyze infor-
mation from beacons spread throughout the building. Thus the location
sensors can be placed on the mobile device as opposed to the building
infrastructure, and the location information is not disclosed during the posi-
tion determination process and the data subject can choose the parties to
which the information should be transmitted.
Policy-based Approaches
Policy-based approaches are currently a hot approach to address the pri-
vacy problem. The access control decisions and authentication are made
based on the specifications of the privacy policies. In the concept of private
authentication, give a general scheme for building private authentication
with work logarithms in the number of tags in RFID (radio frequency iden-
tification) applications.
The automotive telematics domain has a policy-based framework
for protecting sensor information, where an in-car computer can act as a
trusted agent. These concepts enable access control based on criteria such
as time of the request, location, speed, and identity of the located object.
Architecture for a centralized location server is one that controls access
from client applications through a set of validator modules that check
XML-encoded application privacy policies. In another method it is pointed
out that access control decisions can be governed by either room or user
policies. The room policy specifies who is permitted to find out about the
people currently in a room, while the user policy states who is allowed to
get location information about another user.
Information Flooding
Anti-traffic analysis mechanisms are to prevent an outside attacker from
tracking the location of a data source, since that information will release the
location of sensed objects. The randomized data routing mechanism and
phantom traffic generation mechanism are used to disguise the real data
traffic, so that it is difficult for an adversary to track the source of data by
analyzing network traffic. Based on flooding-based routing protocols, the
following methods have been developed for single-path routing to try to
solve the privacy problems in sensor networks.
Baseline Flooding
In the baseline implementation of flooding, every node in the network only
forwards a message once, and no node retransmits a message that it has
previously transmitted. When a message reaches an intermediate node,

the node first checks whether it has received and forwarded that message
before. If this is its first time, the node will broadcast the message to all its
neighbors. Otherwise, it just discards the message.
Probabilistic Flooding
In probabilistic flooding, only a subset of nodes within the entire network
will participate in data forwarding, while the others simply discard the mes-
sages they receive. One possible weakness of this approach is that some
messages may get lost in the network and as a result affect the overall net-
work connectivity. However, this problem does not appear to be a signifi-
cant factor.
Flooding with Fake Messages
The previous flooding strategies can only decrease the chances of a privacy
violation. An adversary still has a chance to monitor the general traffic and
even the individual packets. This observation suggests that one approach
to alleviate the risk of source-location privacy breaching is to augment the
flooding protocols to introduce more sources that inject fake messages into
the network. By doing so, even if the attacker captures the packets, he will
have no idea whether the packets are real.
Phantom Flooding
Phantom flooding shares the same insights as probabilistic flooding in that
they both attempt to direct messages to different locations of the network
so that the adversary cannot receive a steady stream of messages to track
the source. Probabilistic flooding is not very effective in achieving this goal
because shorter paths are more likely to deliver more messages. Therefore,
entice the attacker away from the real source suggested and toward a fake
source, called the phantom source. In phantom flooding, every message
experiences two phases: (1) a walking phase, in which may be a random
walk or a directed walk, and (2) a subsequent flooding meant to deliver the
message to the sink. When the source sends out a message, the message
is unicast in a random fashion within the first hwalk hops (referred to as
random walk phase). After the hwalk hops, the message is flooded using the
baseline flooding technique (referred to as flooding phase). Similar mecha-
nisms are also used to disguise an adversary from finding the location of a
base station by analyzing network traffic. One key problem for these anti-
traffic analysis mechanisms is the energy cost incurred by anonymization.
Intrusion Detection
The area of intrusion detection in wireless sensor networks is important.
Many secure routing schemes attempt to identify network intruders, and
key establishment techniques are used in part to prevent intruders from
overhearing network data. However, resource constraints are not the only
reason. As such, it is difficult to define characteristics (or signatures) that
are specific to a network intrusion as opposed to the normal network traffic
that might occur as the result of normal network operations or malfunctions
resulting from environment change.
Traditionally, Intrusion Detection has Focused on Two Major Categories.
• Anomaly based intrusion detection (AID)
• Misuse intrusion detection (MID)
Anomaly based intrusion detection relies on the assumption that intrud-

ers will demonstrate abnormal behavior relative to the legitimate nodes.
Thus, the object of anomaly based detection is to detect intrusion based on
unusual system behavior. Typically this is done by first developing a profile
of the system in normal use. Once the profile has been generated it can be
used to evaluate the system in the face of intruders. The advantage of using
an anomaly based system is that it is able to detect previously unknown
attacks based only upon knowing that the system behavior is unusual. This
is particularly advantageous in wireless sensor networks where it can be dif-
ficult to boil an attack down to a signature.
However, such flexible intrusion detection comes at a cost. The first is
that the anomaly based approach is susceptible to false positives. This is due
largely to the fact that it can be difficult to define normal system behaviors.
To help combat this, new profiles can be taken of the network to ensure that
the profile in use is up-to-date. However, this takes time. And further, even
with the most up-to-date profile possible, it can still be difficult to discern
unusual, but legitimate, behavior from an actual intrusion. Another fault in
the anomaly based intrusion detection techniques is that the computational
cost of comparing the current system activity to the profile can be quite
high. In the case of a wireless sensor network, such added computation can
severely impact the longevity of the network.
In systems based on misuse intrusion detection, the system maintains
a database of intrusion signatures. Using these signatures, the system can
easily detect intrusions on the network. Further, the system is less prone
to false positives as the intrusion signatures are narrowly defined. Such

narrowly defined signatures, while leading to fewer false positives, also
imply that the intrusion detection system will be unable to detect unknown
attacks. This problem can be somewhat mitigated by maintaining an up-
to-date signature database. However, since it can be difficult to character-
ize attacks on wireless sensor networks, such databases may be inherently
limited and difficult to generate. An advantage, however, is that the misuse
intrusion detection system requires less computation in order to identify
intruders as the comparison of network events to the available signatures is
relatively low cost.
Because both techniques have their strengths and weaknesses, tradi-
tional intrusion detection systems use systems that implement both anom-
aly based intrusion detection and misuse intrusion detection models. This
allows such systems to utilize the fast evaluation of the misuse intrusion
detection system, but still recognize abnormal system behavior.
Intrusion Detection in Wireless Sensor Networks

Typically a wireless sensor network uses cryptography to secure itself against
unauthorized external nodes gaining entry into the network. But cryptogra-
phy can only protect the network against the external nodes and does little
to thwart malicious nodes that already possess one or more keys. An intru-
sion detection system (IDS) is classified into two categories: host-based and
network-based. Intrusion detection schemes can be further classified into
those that are signature based, anomaly based, and specification based. A
host-based IDS system operates on operating systems audit trails, system
call audit trails, logs, and so on. A network-based IDS, on the other hand,
operates entirely on packets that have been captured from the network.
A signature-based IDS simply monitors the network for specific predeter-
mined signatures that are indicative of an intrusion.
In an anomaly-based scheme, a standard behavior is defined, and
any deviation from that behavior triggers the intrusion detection system.
Finally, a specification-based scheme defines a set of constraints that are
indicative of a program’s or protocol’s correct operation. There are three
architectures for intrusion detection in wireless sensor networks. The first
is termed the stand-alone architecture. In this case, as its name implies,
each node functions as an independent intrusion detection system and is
responsible for detecting attacks directed toward itself. Nodes do not coop-
erate in any way. The second architecture is the distributed and cooperative
architecture. In this case, an intrusion detection agent still resides on each

node (as in the case of the stand-alone architecture) and nodes are still
responsible for detecting attacks against themselves (local attacks), but also
cooperate to share information in order to detect global intrusion attempts.
The third technique proposed is called the hierarchical architecture. These
architectures are suitable for multi-layered wireless sensor networks. In this
case, a multi-layered network is described as one in which the network is
divided into clusters with cluster-head nodes responsible for routing within
the cluster. The multi-layered network is used primarily for event correla-
tion. An intrusion-detection architecture based on the implementation of a
local intrusion detection system (LIDS) at each node is described.
In order to extend each node’s “vision” of the network, it suggests that
the LIDS existing within the network should collaborate with one another.
All LIDS within the network will exchange two types of data, security data
and intrusion alerts. The security data is simply used to exchange informa-
tion with other network hosts. The intrusion alerts, however, are used to
inform other LIDS of a locally detected intrusion.
A pictorial representation of the LIDS architecture is depicted in
Figure 10.4. MIB (management information base) variables are accessed
through SNMP running on the mobile host, where the LIDS components
are depicted within the block labeled LIDS. The local MIB is designed to
interface with the SNMP agent to provide MIB variable collection from the
local LIDS agent or mobile agents. The mobile agents are responsible for
Mobile Host
LIDS
Mobile Mobile Mobile
Agent Agent Agent
Local Local
SNMP
LIDS LIDS MIB
Agent
Agent Agent
Mobile Agents Place
Communication Frame Work
Ad hoc Wireless network
FIGURE 10.4 The LIDS architecture.

both the collection and processing of data from remote hosts, specifically
SNMP requests. The agents are capable of migration between individual
hosts and are capable of transferring data back to their home LIDS. The
local LIDS agent is responsible for detecting and responding to local intru-
sions as well as responding to events generated by remote nodes.
A method is proposed to use SNMP auditing as the audit source for each
LIDS. Rather than simply sending the SNMP messages over an unreliable
UDP connection, it is suggested that mobile agents will be responsible for
message transporting. When a LIDS detects an intrusion, it should com-
municate this intrusion to other LIDS on the network. Possible responses
include forcing the potential intruder to re-authenticate, or to simply
ignore the suspicious node when performing cooperative actions. Although
this approach cannot be applied to wireless sensor network directly, it is an
interesting idea that explores the local information only, which is the key to
any intrusion detection techniques in sensor networks.
Secure Data Aggregation

As wireless sensor networks continue to grow in size, so does the amount
of data that the sensor networks are capable of sensing. However, due to
the computational constraints placed on individual sensors, a single sensor
is typically responsible for only a small part of the overall data. Because of
this, a query of the wireless sensor network is likely to return a great deal
of raw data, much of which is not of interest to the individual performing
the query.
Thus, it is advantageous for the raw data to first be processed so that
more meaningful data can be gleaned from the network. This is typically
done using a series of aggregators. An aggregator is responsible for collect-
ing the raw data from a subset of nodes and processing/aggregating the raw
data from the nodes into more usable data.
However, such a technique is particularly vulnerable to attacks as
a single node is used to aggregate multiple data. Because of this, secure
information aggregation techniques are needed in wireless sensor networks
where one or more nodes may be malicious.
In a stealthy attack, the attacker seeks to provide incorrect aggrega-
tion results to the user without the user knowing that the results are incor-
rect. Therefore, the goal is to ensure that if a user accepts an aggregate
value as correct, then there is a high probability that the value is close
to the true aggregation value. In the event that the aggregate value has
been tampered with, the user should reject the incorrect results with high
probability.
The aggregate-commit-prove technique is composed of three phases.
In the first stage, aggregate, the aggregator collects data from the sensors
and computes the aggregation result according to a specific aggregate func-
tion. Each sensor should share a key with the aggregator. This allows the
aggregator to verify that the sensor reading is authentic. However, it is pos-
sible that a sensor has been compromised and possesses the key, or that
the sensor is simply malfunctioning. The aggregate phase does not prevent
such malfunctioning.
In the second phase, the commit phase, the aggregator is responsible
for committing to the collected data. This commitment ensures that the
aggregator actually uses the data collected from the sensors. One way to
perform this commitment is to use a Merkle hash-tree construction. Using
this technique the aggregator computes a hash of each input value and the
internal nodes are computed as the hash of their children concatenated.
The commitment is the root value. The hashing is used to ensure that the
aggregator cannot change any input values after having hashed them. In the
final phase, the aggregator is charged with proving the results to the user.
The aggregator first communicates the aggregation result and the commit-
ment. The aggregator then uses an interactive proof to prove the correct-
ness of the results. This generally requires two steps. In the first, the user/
home server checks to ensure that the committed data is a good representa-
tion of the data values in the sensor network. In the second step, the user/
home server decides whether the aggregator is lying. This can be done by
checking whether or not the aggregation result is close to the committed
result. The interactive proof differs depending on the aggregation function
that is being used.
Defending against Physical Attacks

Physical attacks pose a great threat to wireless sensor networks, because
of its unattended feature and limited resources. Sensor nodes may be
equipped with physical hardware to enhance protection against various
attacks. For example, to protect against tampering with the sensors, one
defense involves tamper-proofing the node’s physical package. Many focus
on building tamper-resistant hardware in order to make the actual data and
memory contents on the sensor chip inaccessible to attack. Another way is
to employ special software and hardware outside the sensor to detect physi-
cal tampering. As the price of the hardware itself gets cheaper, tamper-
resistant hardware may become more appropriate in a variety of sensor
network deployments.
One possible approach to protect the sensors from physical attacks is
self-termination. The basic idea is the sensor kills itself, including destroy-
ing all data and keys, when it senses a possible attack. This is particularly
feasible in the large-scale wireless sensor network which has enough redun-
dancy of information, and the cost of a sensor is much cheaper than the
loss of being broken (attacked). The key of this approach is detecting the
physical attack.
A simple solution is periodically conducting neighborhood checking
in static deployment. For mobile sensor networks, this is still an open
problem. Techniques described for extracting protected software and
data from smartcard processors include manual micro probing, laser cut-
ting, focused ion-beam manipulation, glitch attacks, and power analysis,
most of which are also possible physical attacks on the sensor. Based on
an analysis of these attacks, the following are examples of low-cost protec-
tion countermeasures that make such attacks considerably more difficult,
including:
• Randomized Clock Signal

Inserting random-time delays between any observable reaction and
critical operations that might be subject to an attack.
• Randomized Multithreading
Designing a multithread processor architecture that schedules the
processor by hardware between two or more threads of execution
randomly at a per-instruction level.
• Robust Low-frequency Sensor
Building an intrinsic self-test into the detector. Any attempt to
tamper with the sensor should result in the malfunction of the entire
processor.
• Destruction of Test Circuitry
Destroying or disabling the special test circuitry which is for the test
engineers, closing the door to micro probing attackers.
• Restricted Program Counter

Avoid providing a program counter that can run over the entire address
space.
• Top-layer Sensor Meshes
Introducing additional metal layers that form a sensor mesh above the
actual circuit and that do not carry any critical signals to be effective
annoyances to micro probing attackers.
Directional antennas are introduced to defend against wormhole attacks.
Search-based Physical Attacks define a search-based physical attack model,
where the attacker walks through the sensor network using signal detecting
equipment to locate active sensors, and then destroys them. The defense
algorithm is executed by individual sensors in two phases: in the first phase,
sensors detect the attacker and send out attack notification messages to
other sensors; in the second phase, the recipient sensors of the notification
message schedule their states to switch.
Trust Management
Trust is an old but important issue in any networked environment, whether
social networking or computer networking. Trust can solve some problems
beyond the power of the traditional cryptographic security. For example,
judging the quality of the sensor nodes and the quality of their services,
and providing the corresponding access control, for example, does the data
aggregator perform the aggregation correctly? Does the forwarder send out
the packet in a timely fashion? These questions are important, but difficult,
if not impossible, to answer using existing security mechanisms. The trust
issue is emerging as sensor networks thrive. However, it is not easy to build
a good trust model within a sensor network given the resource limits.
According to the small-world principle in the context of social networks
and peer-to-peer computing, one can employ a path-finder to find paths
from a source node to a designated target node efficiently. Based on this
observation, a practical approach to compute trust in wireless networks is
by viewing individual mobile devices as a node of a delegation graph G and
mapping a delegation path from the source node S to the target node T into
an edge in the correspondent transitive closure of the graph G, from which
the trust value is computed. In this approach, an undirected transitive sig-
nature scheme is used within the authenticated transitive graphs. A trust
evaluation based security solution is proposed to provide effective secu-

rity decisions on data protection, secure routing, and other network activi-
ties. Logical and computational trust analysis and evaluation are deployed
among network nodes. Each node’s evaluation of trust on other nodes is
based on serious study and inference from trust factors such as experience
statistics, data value, intrusion detection results, and references to other
nodes, as well as a node owner’s preference and policy.
A reputation-based framework for high integrity sensor networks is
proposed. This framework employs a beta reputation system for reputa-
tion representation, updates, and integration. A mechanism of location-
centric isolation of misbehavior and trust routing in sensor networks is also
described. In their trust model, the trustworthiness value is derived from
the capacity of the cryptography, availability, and packet forwarding. If the
trust value is below a specific trust threshold, then this location is considered
insecure and is avoided when forwarding packets. The most important issue
for building a trust model is adjusting parameters according to environment
changes. These suggestions are quite useful for building trust models in the
wireless sensor network, given their simplicity and cost savings.
Summary
• When the sensor density (i.e., number of sensors per unit area) is
finite, c > = 2r is a necessary and sufficient condition for coverage to
imply connectivity.
• For maximum lifespan coverage, the sensor nodes are implemented
with sleep and awake algorithms.
• An energy-aware routing algorithm is selected for energy conservation.
• To maximize lifespan, balance between the energy consumed by a
route and the minimum residual energy at the nodes along the chosen
route is achieved.
• The reliability of a sensor system is enhanced through the use of
redundancy.
• Flooding is a way the sensor node broadcasts a data packet to all its
neighbors, and this process continues until a destination is found.
• In gossiping, the packet is sent to a selected random neighbor which
selects another random neighbor and finally arrives at the destination.
• In reactive routing protocols the routes are created only when source
wants to send data to a destination, whereas proactive routing
protocols are table driven.
• The main categories of wireless sensor network security are as follows:
1. The obstacles to sensor network security, 2. The requirements
of secure wireless sensor networks, 3. Attacks, and 4. Defensive
measures.
• Limited resources, memory, and power are a few obstacles in sensor
security.
• A denial of service attack is defined as any event that diminishes or
eliminates a network’s capacity to perform its expected function.
Questions
1. State the theorem for sensor deployment and coverage.
2. How will it possible to maximize coverage lifespan?
3. What do you mean by unicast?
4. Write about multicast and broadcast routing types.
5. Explain about the data collection and distribution at the base station.
6. Write in detail about data-centric protocols.
7. What is flooding?
8. What is gossiping?
9. Write a note on hierarchical protocols.
10. Write in detail about the AODV routing protocol.
11. Write a short note about location-based protocols.
12. Write a method for DSR route discovery and maintenance.
13. List the obstacles in sensor security.
14. List the sensor security requirements.
15. Write the types of attacks in security.
16. Write about the defensive measures.
17. Write about trust management.

18. What do you mean by intrusion detection?
Further Reading
1. Security for Wireless Sensor Networks by Donggang Liu and Peng
Ning
2. Security in Wireless Sensor Networks by George S. Oreku and Tamara
Pazynyuk
3. Security for Wireless Sensor Networks Using Identity-Based Cryptog-
raphy by Harsh Kupwade Patil and Stephen A.Szygenda
References
http://www.cise.ufl.edu/~sahni/papers/sensors.pdf
APPENDIX
A
A GUIDE TO SECURING
NETWORKS FOR WI-FI
(IEEE 802.11 FAMILY)1.0/
MARCH, 2017
Prepared By
United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Cybersecurity Engineering
Table of Contents
1. Introduction .................................................................................... 379
2. Threat Types .................................................................................... 381
3. Threat Remediation . ........................................................................ 382
4. Recommended Requirements for Enterprise Wireless Networking ..... 383
5. Recommended Requirements for WIDS/WIPS .................................. 384
6. Recommended Requirements for Wireless Surveys ............................ 386
7. Budget Estimation Guide ................................................................. 388
8. Bluetooth Security Considerations ................................................... 390
Appendix A: Authorities and References ............................................... 390
Appendix B: Acronyms and Abbreviations ............................................ 392
1. Introduction
This guide summarizes leading practices and technical guidance for securing
networks from wireless threats and for securely implementing wireless access
380 • Appendix A
to networks. This document is specifically focused on the wireless technolo-

gies commonly referred to as “Wi-Fi” as defined in the Institute of Electrical
and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 family. This guide does not include
commercial mobile networks (e.g., 3GPP, LTE). The recommendations
in this guide address wireless threats that are universal to all networks and
describe security controls that can work together to mitigate these threats.
Wireless capabilities are widely available, even on networks that are not
intentionally providing these services. Wi-Fi signals may infiltrate buildings
from commercial providers, adjacent buildings and businesses, and other
publicly available services. Authorized and unauthorized Wi-Fi services
can be used to gain unauthorized access to networks that are otherwise
strongly secured. Due to the pervasive nature of Wi-Fi, it is important to
consider the risks associated with these technologies and to examine poten-
tial impacts to confidentiality, availability, and integrity when conducting
risk and threat analyses. On March 31, 2014, the Federal Communications
Commission (FCC) increased the availability of the radio frequency (RF)
spectrum for high-speed, high-capacity Wi-Fi in the 5 GHz band in support
of the ever-increasing demand for Wi-Fi data connectivity.1
In response to the growing number of attacks on networks and the risks
associated with the pervasive nature of wireless technologies, a number of
wireless security guides have been produced by commercial interests, the
Federal Government, and the Department of Defense (DoD). Two of the
SANS CIS2 Critical Security Controls for Effective Cyber Defense v6.0—
Boundary Defense (Critical Security Control (CSC) 12) and Wireless
Access Control (CSC 15)—are specific to wireless risks and threats.
A major recommendation in the guidance above is to deploy a wire-
less intrusion detection system (WIDS) and wireless intrusion prevention
system (WIPS) on every network, even when wireless access to that
network is not offered, to detect and automatically disconnect devices
using unauthorized wireless services.
CSC 12 and CSC 15 recommend monitoring for communication between
networks of different trust levels and specifically calling out WIDS as part
1
Link to FCC announcement: https://www.fcc.gov/document/fcc-increases-5ghz-spectrum-
wi-fi-other-unlicensed-uses
2
According to the SANS Institute, the “SANS CIS Critical Security Controls are a recom-
mended set of actions for cyber defense that provide specific and actionable ways to stop
today’s most pervasive and dangerous attacks.” See Appendix A for link to the SANS CIS
webpage.
A Guide to Securing Networks for Wi-Fi • 381
of the technical approach for monitoring communication. DoD Directive

8100.2, Use of Commercial Wireless Devices, Services, and Technologies in
the Department of Defense (DoD) Global Information Grid (GIG), includes
the DoD policy for addressing Wi-Fi threats to both wireless local area net-
works (WLANs) as well as wired networks. The directive requires that an
active screening capability for wireless devices be implemented on every DoD
network. In July 2016, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence
issued guidance requiring WIDS capabilities for continuous monitoring.
The significant increase of wireless technology in and around enter-
prise networks has correspondingly increased the associated risks. These
risks include neighboring Wi-Fi networks, hot spots, hotels, mobile hotspot
devices such as mobile Wi-Fi (MiFi), and a multitude of mobile devices
and smart phones that have Wi-Fi capabilities. The focus on securing enter-
prise wired networks (through technologies such as firewalls, intrusion
prevention systems (IPSs), content filters, and anti-virus and anti-malware
detection tools) has made enterprise networks a more difficult target for
adversaries. As a result, adversaries are now exploiting less secure end user
devices and Wi-Fi networks to penetrate enterprise networks.
In June 2009, Gartner, Inc., a technology research company, performed
a study entitled “Next Generation Threats and Vulnerabilities.” This study
concluded that Wi-Fi infrastructure attacks had the highest level of
severity and the lowest time to invest for the attacker. While improve-
ments have been made in Wi-Fi technologies since the time of this report
that improve the basic security of Wi-Fi systems, users are still a weak link
and must have a significant understanding of the technology in order to
safeguard against many types of attacks. The automation of connections for
ease of use and insecure default configurations can lead users to inadver-
tently compromise the security of their device or network.
2. Threat Types
By not addressing wireless security, enterprise networks are exposed to the
threats listed below. Monitoring for wireless activity and devices enables an
enterprise to have better visibility into Wi-Fi use and to identify and miti-
gate Wi-Fi-related threats. Wi-Fi threats include:
• Hidden or Rogue Access Points (APs) – unauthorized wireless APs
attached to the enterprise network may not transmit their service set
identifier (SSID) to hide their existence.
382 • Appendix A
• Misconfigured APs – APs with weak or incorrect settings that

allow unauthorized devices to connect or expose connection
communications to sniffing and replay attacks.
• Banned Devices – devices not allowed on the network by
organizational policy (e.g., wireless storage devices).
• Client Mis-association (e.g., department and agency (D/A)) clients
connecting to non-D/A networks while at D/A sites) – clients using
unsecured and unmonitored networks when secured and monitored
network connections are available increases the risk of data loss and
system compromise.
• Rogue Clients – unauthorized clients attaching to the network. Rogue
clients pose risks of bridging and data loss as well as circumventing
established security controls and monitoring efforts.
• Internet Connection Sharing and Bridging Clients – a device that
shares its Internet connection or allows connectivity to multiple
networks concurrently can be used to bypass network monitoring and
security controls and may result in data loss or provide an unsecured
network entry point for an attacker.
• Unauthorized Association – an AP-to-AP association that can violate
the security perimeter of the network.
• Ad hoc Connections – a peer-to-peer network connection that can
violate the security perimeter of the network.
• Honeypot/Evil Twin APs – an AP setup to impersonate authorized
APs intercepting network communications and compromising
systems that connect to it.
• Denial of Service (DoS) Attacks – an attack that seeks to overwhelm
the system causing it to fail or degrade its usability. These attacks are
frequently used in conjunction with other attacks (e.g., honeypot) to
encourage a wireless client to associate with compromised wireless APs.
3. Threat Remediation
An active WIDS/WIPS enables enterprise networks to create and enforce
wireless security policies. WIDS/WIPS provides the ability to centrally
monitor and manage enterprise wireless security with respect to the vari-
ous threats listed above. Alternatively, during an incident related to these
threats, an on-site technician would be required to survey the entire enter-
prise with a laptop or other wireless network detection device in an attempt
to locate and identify a rogue AP. Having a WIDS/WIPS capability in place
greatly aids in incident remediation.
Successfully identifying and mitigating rogue APs and wireless devices
is a challenging and labor-intensive process, as rogue APs are frequently
moved and not always powered on. A WIDS/WIPS capability provides
immediate automated alerts to the enterprise security operations center
(SOC) and can be configured to automatically prevent any clients from
attaching to rogue APs. WIDS/WIPS capabilities are also useful for physi-
cally locating rogue APs in order to remove them.
4. Recommended Requirements for Enterprise

Wireless Networking
Listed below are sample requirements for consideration when securing an
enterprise network from wireless threats. These requirements are derived
from the sources listed in Appendix A: Authorities and References and
should be tailored to specific considerations and applicable compliance
requirements. These requirements are currently tailored to guidance appli-
cable to federal Executive Branch D/As.
• Use existing equipment that can be securely configured and is free
from known vulnerabilities where possible.
• Meet Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) 140-2
compliance for encryption.
• Be compliant to relevant National Institute of Standards and
Technology (NIST) 800-53 controls.
• Use the certificates that reside on personal identification verification
(PIV) cards for user authentication to comply with Office of
Management and Budget (OMB) Homeland Security Presidential
Directive 12 (HSPD-12).
• Support an alternative method of certificate authentication where
PIV cannot be used.
384 • Appendix A
• Use Extensible Authentication Protocol-Transport Layer Security

(EAP-TLS3) certificate based methods or better for to secure the
entire authentication transaction and communications.
• Minimally use Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) counter
mode cipher block chaining message authentication code4 protocol
(CCMP), a form of AES encryption utilized by Wireless Application
Protocol (WAP) 2 enterprise networks. More complex encryption
technologies supporting the requirement for an enhanced data
cryptographic encapsulation mechanism providing confidentiality and
the client’s capabilities while conforming to FIPS 140-2 may be used
as they are developed and approved.
• Allow for enterprise users to operate seamlessly and allow for login
scripts and login activities to function normally. Wireless access
clients should be able to transition from AP-to-AP with no service
disruption while maintaining the security of the connection.
5. Recommended Requirements for WIDS/WIPS

Even wired networks that do not support wireless access should utilize a
WIDS/WIPS solution to monitor and detect rogue APs and unauthorized
connections. The following list includes specific recommended require-
ments for WIDS/WIPS sensor networks and should be tailored based on
local considerations and applicable compliance requirements. WIDS/WIPS
systems should include the following characteristics:
• Rogue client detection capability. The system will reliably detect the
presence of a workstation simultaneously broadcasting IP from a
second wireless network interface card (NIC).
• Have a rogue WAP detection capability. WAP detection capability
should reliably detect the presence of a WAP communicating inside
the physical perimeter of the enterprise.
• Have a rogue detection process capability. Rogue client or WAP
detection shall occur regardless of authentication or encryption
techniques in use by the offending device (e.g., network address
3
RFC 5216
4
Cipher block chaining message authentication code is abbreviated as CBC-MAC.
translation (NAT), encrypted, and soft WAPs). Rogue detection

should combine over-the-air and over-the wire techniques to reliably
expose rogue devices.
• Detect and classify mobile Wi-Fi devices such as iPads, iPods,
iPhones, Androids, Nooks, and MiFi devices.
• Detect 802.11a/b/g/n/ac devices connected to the wired or wireless
network.
• Be able to detect and block multiple WAPs from a single sensor
device over multiple wireless channels.
• Be able to enforce a “no Wi-Fi” policy per subnet and across multiple
subnets.
• Block multiple simultaneous instances of the following: DoS
attacks, ad hoc connections, client mis-associations, media access
control (MAC) address spoofing, honeypot WAPs, rogue WAPs,
misconfigured WAPs, and unauthorized associations.
• Detect and report additional attacks while blocking the above listed
exploits (detection and reporting capabilities will not be affected
during prevention).
• Not affect any external (neighboring) Wi-Fi devices. This
includes attempting to connect over the air to provide Layer Two
fingerprinting; therefore, the use of existing content addressable
memory (CAM) tables is not acceptable to fulfill this requirement.
• Provide minimal communications between sensor and server, and a
specific minimum allowable Kbps should be identified. The system
shall provide automatic classification of clients and WAPs based upon
enterprise policy and governance.
• Provide secure communications between each sensor and server to
prevent tampering by an attacker.
• Have at least four different levels of permissions allowing WIPS
administrators to delegate specific view and admin privileges to other
administrators as determined by the D/A.
• Have automated (event triggered) and scheduled reporting.
• Provide customizable reports.
386 • Appendix A
• Segment reporting and administration based on enterprise

requirements.
• Produce live packet capture over the air and display directly on
analyst workstations.
• Provide event log capture.
• Import site drawings for site planning and location tracking
requirements.
• Manually create simple building layouts with auto-scale capability
within the application.
• Be able to place sensors and WAPs electronically on building maps
to maintain accurate records of sensor placement and future AP
locations.
• Meet all applicable federal standards and Federal Acquisition
Regulations (FAR)5 for Federal Government deployments.
6. Recommended Requirements for Wireless Surveys

Many integrators of wireless solutions can perform a predictive or virtual
site survey as part of the proposal or estimating process. This approach
utilizes a set of building blueprints or floor plans to determine the optimal
placement of sensors and APs within the facility. A predictive site survey
takes into account the building dimension and structure but cannot account
for potential RF sources because no direct examination of the site is con-
ducted. This approach may be sufficient for some enterprises and is signifi-
cantly less expensive than a more thorough RF site survey.
Alternatively, a wireless site survey, also known as a RF site survey,
provides a definitive set of information for developing a wireless deploy-
ment and security plan. The survey is a defined set of tasks performed
in the facility that documents the wireless characteristics of the physical
facilities, coverage areas, and interference sources. This information is
essential to understanding the optimal number and placement of WAPs
and WIDS/WIPS devices to provide desired coverage and functionality
in a facility.
5
Federal standards and Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR)
Issues that a wireless survey seeks to identify include:

• Multipath Distortion – distortion of RF signals caused by multiple
RF reflective paths between the transmitter and receiver.
• RF Coverage Barriers – materials used in construction may not
transmit RF signals resulting in unexpected loss of strength and
reduced range.
• External and Internal Interference Sources – RF signals used by
Wi-Fi are not the only users in that frequency. Identification of
interference sources assists in designing a solution that achieves the
desired coverage in the most efficient manner.
Before beginning a wireless survey, the following information should be

obtained:
• Where in the facility is Wi-Fi access needed?
• Will there be more than one wireless network, such as a work and
guest network?
• How many devices and connections will be supported over Wi-Fi?
• What are the data rate needs of these devices over Wi-Fi?
• A facility map or floor plan is essential to overlay the survey results
on. This floor plan should be provided to the survey team in a digital
file format appropriate to their needs, if possible.
The following list provides specific recommendations for a wireless survey.

These recommendations should be tailored based on local considerations
and applicable compliance requirements. A survey not intended to serve
as a guide for network design and installation, and verification of the wire-
less communication infrastructure may not require all of the details listed.
The wireless survey should produce the following documents as a
product:
• A facilities map(s) showing wireless coverage with the following
indicated:
Interference sources and strength,
Any existing networks’ signal strength and coverage contours,
388 • Appendix A
External network sources available in the facility with signal

strength coverage contours,
Identification of areas where multipath distortion may occur,
Recommended WAP placement,
Recommended WIDS/WIPS placement, and
Indication of signal strength coverage contours using recommended
placement.
• A report providing details of findings and recommendations including
details of risks, threats, and recommended mitigations. The report
should include a RF spectrum analysis that will minimally indicate:
RF interference sources,
Measurement of signal-to-noise ratio (SNR),
RF power peaks, and
Wi-Fi channel interference.
• A detailed list of materials needed to accomplish goals and coverages
as identified in the survey maps and reports.
• An estimated labor hours report required to install, test, and validate
the installation described in the survey maps and reports.
The survey information enables optimization of AP channels, antenna

type, AP transmit power levels, and placement for the proposed wireless
network installation.
7. Budget Estimation Guide

Configuration and budget estimation guidance is provided below for the
technical solutions outlined in these recommendations. The example infor-
mation is the product of market research conducted by DHS. This guid-
ance should be used for budgetary purposes only and the final costs will be
heavily dependent on the physical characteristics of the facilities being con-
sidered. Accurate cost estimation is best determined by working with
your Network Infrastructure Support team and requesting compet-
itive proposals from experienced installers of these solutions.
The following factors should be accounted for to ensure a comprehen-

sive estimate of the total project costs:
• Site Evaluation – a predictive site survey utilizing the site floor plans
with documentation on existing network infrastructure can provide
an accurate cost estimation for equipment required to cover the
facility. While not as precise as an onsite RF survey, this typically
provides sufficient accuracy for budget purposes. If your site is over
50,000 square feet (sq. ft.) or has significant potential RF interference
sources (e.g., onsite RF transmitters, radar installations, or is
older stone, masonry, or steel construction), an RF survey may be
indicated. Vendors should be informed of these considerations when
requesting estimates.
• Labor – cost should include the initial installation, training for
network staff to maintain the solution, and training for the Security
Operations team to utilize the solution.
• Physical and Virtual Infrastructure – equipment and service costs to
support the solution should include: physical or virtual server costs,
network infrastructure costs, network cabling, and power cabling.
• Maintenance and Support – costs include warranty, software support,
and licensing costs that are part of the ongoing operations and
maintenance of the solution.
Table 1 shows budgetary estimate example details for WIDS/WIPS solutions.
Table 1 Budgetary Estimate Example for WIDS/WIPS Solutions
Item Purpose Estimated Unit

Description Costs ($)
Predictive RF Utilizes facility plans to estimate coverage needs sq. ft.
Survey for sensors and APs
Onsite Utilized for training, system tuning, and Per day

Support configuration services, as well as an onsite RF
spectrum survey, if desired
Sensor Dual band 802.11AC sensor unit Per sensor
Cell Sensor Additional radio for detection of US cell phone Per sensor
Option signals by the 802.11 AC sensor
390 • Appendix A
Item Purpose Estimated Unit

Description Costs ($)
Management A VM image for the management server that Per VM or
Server Virtual can support up to 50 sensors appliance
Machine (VM) Cloud-based, physical appliances, and other
license models are available depending on busi-
ness needs and goals
Service and Support costs for each component varies Per
Support depending on response time and level of service device or
desired license
8. Bluetooth Security Considerations

Bluetooth technologies (IEEE 802.15) in mobile devices present additional
risks for the loss of data and the potential to eavesdrop on conversations.
This exposes D/As to a higher risk for loss of confidentiality on D/A-
managed devices and networks when Bluetooth is utilized while conducting
D/A business. Any device – including laptops, cell phones, and tablets–that
has this capability is subject to this risk.
Bluetooth technologies are designed to create a personal area network
(PAN) that supports the connection of devices such as audio, keyboard,
mice, or data storage devices to a system. All versions of the Bluetooth spec-
ification include unsecured modes of connection, and these are typically
the easiest connections to establish. Bluetooth signals have been exploited
at distances of several hundred feet, and this should be taken into consid-
eration when evaluating the risks and establishing policies around its usage.
Mitigation methods for Bluetooth risks should include the development
of a Bluetooth usage policy, enforcement of configuration management for
D/A-managed devices based on this policy, and user awareness training that
informs users of the risks associated with using Bluetooth. More detailed
information on threats and mitigations for Bluetooth technologies can be
found in NIST SP 800-121 rev 1.
Appendix A: Authorities and References

Listed below are the technical authorities, references, standards, and pub-
lications used in the creation of this guide.
Authorities and Description

References
CIO Council Mobile CIO Council’s government mobile and wireless security baseline
Security (Baseline, of standard security requirements
Framework, and https://cio.gov/wp-content/uploads/downloads/2013/05/Federal-
Reference Architecture) Mobile-Security-Baseline.pdf
DHS 4300A DHS Sensitive System Policy
https://www.dhs.gov/xlibrary/assets/foia/mgmt_directive_4300a_
policy_v8.pdf
CSC 12 Boundary The CIS Critical Security Controls for Effective Cyber Defense
Defense https://www.cisecurity.org/critical-controls/
CSC 15 Wireless Access The CIS Critical Security Controls for Effective Cyber Defense
Control https://www.cisecurity.org/critical-controls/
DoD Directive 8100.02 Use of Commercial Wireless Devices, Services, and Technologies in
the Department of Defense (DoD) Global Information Grid (GIG)
http://www.dtic.mil/whs/directives/corres/pdf/810002p.pdf
DoD Instruction Commercial Wireless Local Area Network Devices, Systems, and
8420.01 Technologies
http://www.dtic.mil/whs/directives/corres/pdf/842001p.pdf
NIST SP 800-160 NIST SP 800-160 Systems Security Engineering: Considerations
for a Multidisciplinary Approach in the Engineering of
Trustworthy Secure Systems
(While not specifically related to this topic, this publication pro-
vides guidance on security engineering applicable to all systems.)
http://nvlpubs.nist.gov/nistpubs/SpecialPublications/NIST.SP.800-
160.pdf
FIPS 140-2 Security Requirements for Cryptographic Modules
http://csrc.nist.gov/groups/STM/cmvp/standards.html
GAO 11-43 GAO Report to Congressional Committees: Federal Agencies
Have Taken Steps to Secure Wireless Networks, but Further
Actions Can Mitigate Risk
http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d1143.pdf
Gartner, Inc. Next Generation Threats and Vulnerabilities, June 2009
HSPD-12 Policies for a Common Identification Standard for Federal
Employees and Contractors
https://www.dhs.gov/homeland-security-presidential-directive-12
NIST 800-153 Guidelines for Securing Wireless Local Networks (WLANs)
http://nvlpubs.nist.gov/nistpubs/Legacy/SP/nistspecialpublication800-
153.pdf
392 • Appendix A
Authorities and Description

References
NIST 800-53 rev 4 Security and Privacy Controls for Federal Information Systems and
Organizations
http://nvlpubs.nist.gov/nistpubs/SpecialPublications/NIST.SP.800-
53r4.pdf
NIST SP 800-121 rev 1 Guide to Bluetooth Security
http://nvlpubs.nist.gov/nistpubs/Legacy/SP/nistspecialpublication
800-121r1.pdf
SANS CIS Critical The SANS CIS Critical Security Controls are a recommended set
Security Controls of actions for cyber defense that provide specific and actionable
ways to stop today’s most pervasive and dangerous attacks.
http://www.sans.org/critical-security-controls/
Appendix B: Acronyms and Abbreviations

Acronym Definition
AES Advanced Encryption Standard

AP access point
CAM content addressable memory
CBC-MAC cipher block chaining message authentication code
CCMP Counter mode CBC-MAC protocol
CIO Chief Information Officer
CSC Critical Security Control
D/A department and agency
DHS Department of Homeland Security
DoD Department of Defense
DoS denial of service
EAP-TLS Extensible Authentication Protocol-Transport Layer Security
FAR Federal Acquisition Regulations
FCC Federal Communications Commission
FIPS Federal Information Processing Standards
GAO Government Accounting Office
GIG Global Information Grid
Acronym Definition
HSPD Homeland Security Presidential Directive

IEEE Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
IPS intrusion prevention system
MAC media access control
MiFi mobile Wi-Fi
NIC network interface card
NIST National Institute of Standards and Technology
OMB Office of Management and Budget
PAN personal area network
PIV personal identification verification
RF radio frequency
SOC security operations center
SNR signal-to-noise ratio
SP Special Publication
SSID service set identifier
VM virtual machine
WAP wireless access point
WIDS wireless intrusion detection system
WIPS wireless intrusion prevention system
WLAN wireless local area network
APPENDIX
B
ABBREVIATIONS
4A Anywhere, Anytime, by Anyone and Anything
ABS Anti-lock Braking System
ADC Analog to Digital Converter
AODV Ad-hoc On Demand Distance Vector Routing
API Application Programming Interface
ASCII American Standard Code for Information Interchange
ASIC Application Specific Integrated Circuit
BLE Bluetooth Low Energy
BRAM Block RAM
CDMA Code Division Multiple Access
CNC Computer Numerically Controller
CoAP Constrained Application Protocol
CPLD Complex Programmable Logic Device
CPU Central Processing Unit
DCM Digital Clock Manager
DMA Direct Memory Access
DRAM Dynamic RAM
DSN Distributed Sensor Network
DSP Digital Signal Processing/Processor
ETSI European Telecommunications Standards Institute
FCC Federal Communications Commission
FDDI Fiber Distributed Data Interface
FDM Frequency Division Multiplexing
FDMA Frequency Division Multiple Access
FFD Full Function Device
396 • Appendix B
FFT Fast Fourier Transform

FH Frequency Hopping
FHSS Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum
FPGA Field Programmble Gate Array
GHG Green House Gases
GPP General Purpose Processor
GPRS General Packet Radio Service
GPS Global Positioning System
GPS Global Positioning by Satellite
GSM Global System for Mobile communications
HVAC Heating Ventilation Air Conditioning
ICT Information and Communication Technologies
ID Identity or Identification
IEEE Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
IETF Internet Engineering Task Force
IoT Internet of Things
IP Intellectual Property
IP Internet Protocol
IPv6 Internet Protocol Version 6
ISM Industrial, Scientific and Medical Radio Bands
ISO International Organization for Standardization
ITS Intelligent Transport Systems
ITU-T International Telecommunication Union/
Telecommunication Standardization Sector
LAN Local Area Network
LoWPAN IPv6 over Low power Wireless Personal Area Networks
MAC Media Access Control
MEMS Micro Electro Mechanical Systems
MOS Metal Oxide Semiconductor
MSG Message
NIST National Institute of Standards and Technology
OFDM Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing
PAN Personal Area Network
PC Personal Computer
Abbreviations • 397
PDA Personal Digital Assistant

PHY Physical layer
PPP Point to Point Protocol
QoS Quality of Service
R&D Research and Development
RAM Random Access Memory
RF Radio Frequency
RFD Reduced Function Device
RFID Radio Frequency Identification
RISC Reduced Instruction Set Computer
SCM Supply Chain Management
SDO Standards Development Organisation
SOA Service Oriented Architecture
SOAP Service Oriented Architecture Protocol
SoC System-on-Chip
SPI Serial Peripheral Interface
SRAM Static RAM
STM Smart Transducer interface Module
TCP Transmission Control Protocol
TDMA Time Division Multiple Access
TEDS Transducer Electronic Data Sheet
TG Task Group
TIES Telecom Information Exchanges Services
TSAG Telecommunication Standardization Advisory Group (of ITU-T)
TSMP Time Synchronized Mesh Protocol
U Ubiquitous, as in “uHealth” or “uCity”
UCC Urban Consolidation Centre
UCI Universal Context Identifiers
UDP User Datagram Protocol
USN Ubiquitous Sensor Network
UWB UltraWideBand
VHDL Very High Speed Integrated Circuit (VHSIC) Hardware Description Language
W3C World Wide Web Consortium
WiMAX Wireless Interoperability for Microwave Access
398 • Appendix B
WISA Wireless Interface for Sensors and Actuators

WLAN Wireless Local Area Network
WMAN Wireless Metropolitan Area Network
WPAN Wireless Personal Area Network
WSAN Wireless Sensor and Actuator Network.
WSIS World Summit on the Information Society
WSN Wireless Sensor Network
WWAN Wireless Wide Area Network
ZDO ZigBee Device Object
ZED ZigBee Extended Device
INDEX
802.11 WLAN, 9 Battlefield, 3, 4, 134, 305, 306, 308, 309

Bed sensor, 132
A Bellman-ford algorithm, 27
Big Data, 230–235
ABR protocol, 297
Biological transducers, 36
Acoustic sensors, 38, 254
Biosensors, 36, 38, 111, 135, 143
Active attack, 300, 328, 366
Bit rate, 9, 58, 95, 250, 264
Adaptive routing schemes, 26
Bluetooth, 7, 8, 13, 60, 119, 125, 197,
Adaptive, 26, 80, 89, 273, 275, 317, 319,
237, 238, 255, 290, 310
340, 341
Body network, 111–114, 117, 131,
Ad Hoc wireless networks, 41, 47, 286
132, 135
Aerial WSN, 176
Body sensor network architecture, 111,
AES, 358
112, 135
Agriculture, 2, 4, 50, 145, 148, 151, 173,
Broadcast, 22, 26, 103, 105, 196, 287,
205, 206, 231
288, 290, 293, 296, 298, 304, 309, 311,
Anti-submarine, 191
316, 320, 323, 334, 335, 343
AODV routing protocol, 341, 377
BSN topology, 125
Aquatic monitoring, 189, 200, 202–205,
Building monitoring, 3, 169
210, 211
Bus topology, 12, 22
Architecture, 1, 12, 25, 28, 31, 47, 49,
Bushfire, 143, 144, 173
52–54, 58, 59, 61–66, 69–73, 76, 77,
80–85, 88, 89, 94, 96, 111, 112, 121,
145, 153, 156, 157, 160, 178, 186, 189 C
ASDM, 319
Camouflage, 356
ASIC, 55
Capacitive sensors, 34
Attack, 5, 300, 323–325, 346, 348, 354,
CARAVAN, 319, 320
365
CDMA, 25, 149, 172, 201, 272, 274
Authentication, 194, 195, 197, 229, 302,
CEPEC, 319, 320
325, 326, 352, 358, 360, 367
CGGC, 318
Automobile, 5, 35, 234, 246
CGSR protocol, 296
Autonomous, 120, 176, 179, 186, 187,
Channels, 9, 20, 95, 102, 152, 176, 198,
193, 230, 240, 259, 279, 281, 290
199, 201, 261, 269, 273
Chemical transducers, 37
B Chemiresistors, 36, 37
Baseline flooding, 367 City logistics, 163
Battery management algorithm, 153 Client-server, 12
Clusters, 29, 84–86, 149, 207, 208, 290, DSRC, 319

320, 362, 371 DSSS, 18, 95
Coastal sensing, 279, 280 Dynamic topology, 293, 294
Computer vision, 246, 257–259
Concurrency, 77, 79, 87, 88, 90
E
Conductivity, 34, 183, 184, 192, 194, 206
Confidentiality, 194, 195, 197, 209, 229 Eddy current sensors, 35
Congestion control, 199, 202, 262–264, Efficiency, 182, 204, 220, 228, 231, 233,
270 234, 237
Congestion, 26, 27, 51, 166, 199, 202, Electrochemical transducers, 37
245, 261–264, 270, 304, 312, 348 Electromagnetic sensors, 34
Context awareness, 117, 125, 141, 215 Electromagnetic spectrum, 14, 20, 38
Cooperative, 1, 45, 77, 79, 81, 88, 107, Electronic nose, 38
186, 192, 200, 315, 320, 370, 372 Electronic tickets, 163, 164
Coverage, 8, 14, 124, 148, 149, 156, 158, Emplaced sensor network, 113, 114
172, 189, 190, 197, 218, 228, 251, 254, Energy aware routing, 339
278, 280, 307, 330, 331 Energy saving algorithms, 29
Cross layer design, 272, 273 Environment, 2, 6, 40, 42, 45, 88, 124, 125,
133, 134, 138, 140, 143–147, 159, 166,
175, 187, 192, 210, 245, 272, 287, 288,
D 293, 294, 307
Ethernet, 11, 12, 79, 166, 207, 219, 228,
Data centric routing protocol, 338 238, 240, 241, 306, 308
Data confidentiality, 195, 229
Data integrity, 135, 195, 349
Data Rate, 95, 222 F
Deadlock, 26, 27 FDDI, 12, 24
DES, 358 FDMA, 25, 182, 201
Design coordinators, 129 FHSS, 7, 18–20
Digital Signal Processor, 54, 56 Fixed routing schemes, 26
Dijkstra algorithm, 27 Flexibility, 120, 186, 218, 224, 236
Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum, 18, Flooding, 193, 200, 204, 224, 226, 293,
19, 95 339, 354, 360, 367, 368
Directed diffusion, 222, 224–226, 339, Flow control, 27
340, 361, 362 FPGA, 54–56, 72, 232
Disaster, 3, 143, 144, 145, 148, 156, 192, Frequency Hopping Spread
203, 287 Spectrum, 19
Dissolved oxygen, 153, 175, 183, 206, 207 Full Function Device, 98, 100
Doppler shift, 51
DoS attacks, 195, 323, 357, 359
DREAM algorithm, 317 G
DSDV protocol, 296 GBR routing, 340
DSR routing protocol, 297, 344 GEAR protocol, 341
Index • 401
Generic, 80, 81, 88–91, 103 Integrity, 76, 134, 135, 194, 195, 197,
Gigabit Ethernet, 12 209, 229, 301, 319, 331, 349, 364, 376
Global monitoring, 170–172 Intermittent data, 99
GloMoSim, 134 Internet of Things, 139, 213, 214, 227,
Gossiping, 293, 339, 376 230, 237
GPRS, 125, 154, 177, 181 Intrusion detection, 4, 168, 193, 254, 357,
GPS, 30, 38, 40, 132, 134, 143, 155, 162, 369–372, 376
164, 169 Inventory, 6
GPSR, 317 IoT Architecture, 218, 219
Greenhouse gases, 161 IrDA, 13
GSM, 149, 152, 154, 181, 228, 326 ISM bands, 11, 17, 60
H J
Hall effect, 34, 40, 41, 42, 88 Jitter, 263, 268
Ham radio, 11
Harvard architecture, 52–54, 74 K
Headers, 24
Key management, 195, 197, 300, 301,
Healthcare, 3, 110, 111, 131, 140,
303, 325, 351, 357, 361
145, 215
Heterogeneous WSN, 225
Hierarchical protocol, 340 L
Hogthrob node architecture, 72, 73 Landslide monitor, 169
Home RF, 13 Latency, 24, 58, 99, 100, 202, 218,
Homogeneous, 58, 120, 223, 224, 266–270, 274, 293, 322, 323, 338, 348
252–254 LEACH protocol, 207, 340
Homogeneous WSN, 224 LEAP protocol, 358
Hybrid network, 216, 217 Livelock, 26, 27
Location based protocol, 340, 341
I Location discovery, 29, 30
Luminosity sensor, 132
IEEE 1451, 30–32, 293
IEEE 802.15.4 stack, 94
IGEFET, 37–39
M
IIC, 44 MAC bus, 68, 69
Imaging motes, 255 Magnetic sensors, 34, 43
Imote node architecture, 69, 70 Magnetoresistive effect, 34
Inductive sensors, 34 MANET, 290–295, 308, 313, 315, 340
Industry, 5, 6, 155, 205, 227, 236, Mechanical sensor, 32, 40
240, 246 MEMS, 32, 40, 128, 256
Information flooding, 367 Mesh network, 22, 77, 99, 123, 218, 228,
Infrastructure-based network, 287 241, 287
Metal-Oxide gas sensors, 37 P

Middleware, 80–85, 88, 89, 140, 141,
Packet radio networks, 11, 16, 287
259, 303
PAN coordinator, 99, 100, 108
Military, 2–5, 76, 140, 145, 203, 205, 267,
Passive attack, 300, 328
272, 285, 289, 290, 305, 308, 331, 332,
Patient monitoring, 3, 112, 118, 135, 136
346, 349
Peer-to-peer computing, 12, 375
Mobicasting, 321
Peer-to-peer network, 12, 97
Modular architecture, 62, 63, 64, 65, 69
PEGASIS protocol, 340
Modularity, 65, 77, 80, 87, 88
Periodic data, 99, 100
Motion sensor, 131, 132, 139, 146, 235
pH, 206, 210
Multi hop network, 145, 270, 307, 354
Phantom flooding, 368
Multicast, 266, 310, 334, 335, 357, 361,
PIC 16F88, 66, 67
363, 365, 366, 377
Piezoresistive effect, 33
Multimedia encoding, 259, 261
Piezoelectric effect, 33
Multiple access protocols, 25, 202
PIKE protocol, 358
Position based routing, 316, 317, 320
Proactive protocol, 296
N Probabilistic flooding, 368
Nanotechnology, 143, 209, 213, 234
Narrow band modulation, 17
NBC, 5 Q
Network discovery, 103, 104 QoS aware protocol, 341
Network formation, 86, 102, 103, 286,
303
Network model, 28 R
Network topology, 20, 79, 83, 86, 123,
127, 141, 149, 178, 186, 197, 200, 290, Radio bands, 15
291, 295, 299, 316, 317, 327 Radio spectrum, 15, 17
NP-complexity, 21 RC5, 358
NS-2, 134 Reactive protocol, 297
Reduced Function Device, 98, 101, 108
Reflective, 80, 81, 89
Rekeying, 196, 197
O Resilience, 198, 265, 307
Oceanographic monitoring, 175–179, 210 Resonant temperature sensors, 36
Oceanographic sensor, 176, 179, 182, RF design, 95, 108
183, 211 RFID Reader, 141
Oceanography, 193, 203, 210 RFID tag, 131, 140, 145, 172
Operating System, 41, 53, 61, 77, 80, 82, Ring topology, 22, 26
88, 92, 107, 108, 129, 183, 208 Robotic landmine, 143, 173
Optical transducers, 36 Robustness, 79, 81, 89, 185, 198, 205,
OSI/ISO, 25 217, 293
Index • 403
Router nodes, 123, 128, 129 Switching, 14, 20, 24, 153, 165, 204, 271,
Routing, 21, 242 287, 290
Rumor routing, 339 Sybil attack, 325, 354, 363, 365
S T
SAW, 38–40 Table driven protocol, 295, 296, 327, 341,
Scalability, 10, 77, 81, 89, 97, 120, 123, 377
172, 251, 252, 254, 289, 293 TDMA, 25, 26, 63, 64, 182, 201, 268, 269
Scheduler, 89, 90, 347 TEEN protocol, 340
Secure data aggregation, 30, 357, 372 Thermal sensors, 35
Security, 6, 8, 13, 22, 29, 30 Thermo-mechanical transduction, 35
Self healing ring, 22 Thermocouples, 35, 36, 40
Self-organizing networks, 288 Timers, 89–91, 99
Sensor networks, 1 Tiny OS, 87–93
Sensor node, 1 Token ring, 11, 26
Sensor technologies, 42, 232 TORA algorithm, 299
Sensor, 1–10, 22, 23, 24 Transducers, 31, 32, 36, 37, 39
SensorSim, 134 Transmission line, 155, 156, 173
SHARC architecture, 52, 53 Tunneling sensing, 33
Simulators, 134 Turbidity, 175, 183, 192, 194, 206, 207,
Smart electricity, 155, 159 210
Smart grid, 155, 157, 166, 173
Smart home, 166, 173
Smart sensor, 30–32, 47, 289 U
Source initiated protocol, 295, 297–299, 327 Ubiquitous computing, 139, 216, 242
Spectrum, 14, 15, 17–20, 38, 39, 46, 95, Underwater Acoustic sensor
97, 228, 237, 271, 319, 327, 359 network, 186, 212
SPEED protocol, 266 Unicast, 266, 304, 312, 317, 318, 334,
SPI, 44, 45, 57, 58, 63, 65, 69, 72, 75, 184 335, 352, 368, 377
SPIN protocol, 339, 366 Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, 305
Spread spectrum modulation, 18 USN, 139–146, 151, 172, 173
Star topology, 22, 98, 123, 125, 170–
172, 218
Static, 90, 117, 120, 124, 125, 186, 202, V
210, 218, 248, 270, 367, 374 VANET, 309, 313–317, 320–324,
Structure monitor, 169 327–329
Sub-1GHz transceiver, 95 Vehicular ad hoc networks, 286, 309, 313,
Substations, 156, 157, 173 319, 321, 329
Surface sensors, 183, 184, 211 Video node, 281, 282
Video sensor network, 245, 254, 275, Wireless layers, 28, 46

277–280, 285 Wireless sensor network, 1
Virtual machine, 83, 84, 85 Wireless standards, 9, 46, 93, 236
Virtual sensor, 31, 32 Wireless WAN, 11, 14
Volcano eruption, 145, 146 WRP protocol, 296, 327
Von Neumann architecture, 52, 58, 73, 74
X
W XYZ node architecture, 71, 74, 75
Water quality monitoring, 205–207,
210, 211
Wearable body network, 112 Z
Wearable computing, 134, 136 Zigbee stack, 101, 108
Wi-Fi, 180, 233, 238, 240, 241, 306, 353 ZigBee, 9, 13, 14, 46, 60, 76, 87, 93, 94,
WiMAX, 180 97–103, 105, 107–109, 119, 122, 125,
Wireless communications, 60, 120, 122, 181, 194, 207, 219, 228, 238, 293, 310,
150, 179, 250, 272, 280 327, 353
Wireless LAN, 7, 11, 14, 19, 125, 286

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What are some of the main technologies discussed in the document?

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What are some applications of wireless sensor networks mentioned?

Wireless

Mercury Learning and Information (“MLI” or “the Publisher”) and anyone

Mercury Learning and Information

Publisher: David Pallai

S. R. Vijayalakshmi, PhD & S. Muruganand, PhD. Wireless Sensor Networks.

Library of Congress Control Number: 2018938985

1 WIRELESS SENSOR NETWORKS.......................................... 1

2 NODE HARDWARE ARCHITECTURE������������������������������� 49

2.3 Common Wireless Sensor Node Architecture ............................... 61

4 WIRELESS BODY SENSOR NETWORKS ......................... 111

Further Reading ............................................................................ 137

5 UBIQUITOUS SENSOR NETWORKS ................................ 139

6 UNDERWATER WIRELESS SENSOR NETWORKS

Further Reading ............................................................................ 211

7 INTERNET OF THINGS WSNs .......................................... 213

8 WIRELESS MULTIMEDIA SENSOR NETWORKS .......... 245

9 MOBILE AD HOC NETWORKS ........................................ 287

10 ROUTING AND SECURITY IN WSNs ............................... 331

APPENDIX A ............................................................................. 379

Chapter 3 discusses the software architectures of a wireless sensor

1.1 Introduction to Wireless Sensor Networks

Currently, wireless sensor networks are beginning to be deployed at an

1.2 Usage of Sensor Networks

Base Station Base Station

FIGURE 1.1 Accessing WSNs through the Internet.

1.3 Applications of WSNs

• Machine surveillance and preventive maintenance

The following are brief discussions of some of the application areas.

5. Detection of NBC Attacks: Sensor networks can be used as a Nuclear,

Applications for Automobiles

the insertion of sensors into regions that are inaccessible by humans,

1.4 Difficulties in WSN Research

Radio waves penetrate Passive reception

FIGURE 1.3 The resulting radiation pattern of an omni-directional antenna within an

Bit Rates are:

1.5 Basic Requirements for WSNs

1.6 History of Wireless Networks

In 1985, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) authorized the

Historical Development and Standards

specification. The Fiber Distributed Data Interface (FDDI) specifies

802.11 Wireless Local Area Network

IrDA (Infrared Data Association)

ZigBee continues to work closely with the IEEE to ensure an integrated

Wireless WAN vs. LAN

Table 1.1 Comparison between Wireless WAN and Wireless LAN

Wireless WAN Wireless LAN

transmission speed: 10K-1M ubiquitous transmission speed: more than 1Mbps

1.7 Electromagnetic Spectrum

Bandwidth increase, range decreases

Frequency Band name Applications

<3 KHz Extremely Low Frequency (ELF) Submarine

HF band enables worldwide transmission. HF signals are reflected off the

ELF VLF LF MF HF VHF UHF MW IR VL UV XR

100 103 106 109 1012 1015 1018Hz

Mobile Radio Paging Cellular Cordless PCS

2 NODE HARDWARE ARCHITECTURE�� 49