International Journal of Sensors and Sensor Networks

2019; 7(1): 9-15

http://www.sciencepublishinggroup.com/j/ijssn
doi: 10.11648/j.ijssn.20190701.12
ISSN: 2329-1796 (Print); ISSN: 2329-1788 (Online)

Study of Wireless Sensor Network

Mohaiminul Islam1, Amit Kumar2, Anower Hossain3
1
School of Intelligent Technology and Engineering, Chongqing University of Science and Technology, Chongqing, China
2
School of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology, Chongqing University of Science and Technology, Chongqing, China
3
School of Computer Science and Engineering, Chongqing University of Technology, Chongqing, China

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To cite this article:

Mohaiminul Islam, Amit Kumar, Anower Hossain. Study of Wireless Sensor Network. International Journal of Sensors and Sensor Networks.
Vol. 7, No. 1, 2019, pp. 9-15. doi: 10.11648/j.ijssn.20190701.12

Received: July 27, 2019; Accepted: August 18, 2019; Published: August 26, 2019

Abstract: A wireless sensor network is a group of specialized transducers with a communications infrastructure for
monitoring and recording conditions at diverse locations. Commonly monitored parameters are temperature, humidity, pressure,
wind direction and speed, illumination intensity, vibration intensity, sound intensity, power-line voltage, chemical
concentrations, pollutant levels and vital body functions. A sensor network consists of multiple detection stations called sensor
nodes, each of which is small, lightweight and portable. Every sensor node is equipped with a transducer, microcomputer,
transceiver and power source. The transducer generates electrical signals based on sensed physical effects and phenomena. The
microcomputer processes and stores the sensor output. The transceiver receives commands from a central computer and
transmits data to that computer. The power for each sensor node is derived from a battery. Currently, WSN (Wireless Sensor
Network) is the most standard services employed in commercial and industrial applications, because of its technical
development in a processor, communication, and low-power usage of embedded computing devices. The WSN is built with
nodes that are used to observe the surroundings like temperature, humidity, pressure, position, vibration, sound etc. These
nodes can be used in various real-time applications to perform various tasks like smart detecting, a discovery of neighbor node,
data processing and storage, data collection, target tracking, monitor and controlling, synchronization, node localization, and
effective routing between the base station and nodes. This paper describes the concept of wireless sensor network.
Keywords: Wireless Sensor Network, Protocols Sensor, Network Topologies, Application Layer, Data Transmission,
Ad Hoc Networks, Network Architecture

network includes a large number of circulating, self-directed,

1. Introduction minute, low powered devices named sensor nodes called
WSNs were initially designed to facilitate military motes. These networks certainly cover a huge number of
operations but its application has since been extended to spatially distributed, little, battery-operated, embedded
health, traffic, and many other consumer and industrial areas. devices that are networked to caringly collect, process, and
A WSN consists of anywhere from a few hundreds to transfer data to the operators, and it has controlled the
thousands of sensor nodes. The sensor node equipment capabilities of computing & processing. Nodes are the tiny
includes a radio transceiver along with an antenna, a computers, which work jointly to form the networks [2-3].
microcontroller, an interfacing electronic circuit, and an The sensor node is a multifunctional, energy efficient
energy source, usually a battery. The size of the sensor nodes wireless device. The applications of motes in industrial are
can also range from the size of a shoe box to as small as the widespread. A collection of sensor nodes collects the data
size of a grain of dust. As such, their prices also vary from a from the surroundings to achieve specific application
few pennies to hundreds of dollars depending on the objectives. The communication between motes can be done
functionality parameters of a sensor like energy consumption, with each other using transceivers. In a wireless sensor
computational speed rate, bandwidth, and memory [1]. network, the number of motes can be in the order of
A Wireless Sensor Network is one kind of wireless hundreds/ even thousands. In contrast with sensor n/ws, Ad
10 Mohaiminul Islam et al.: Study of Wireless Sensor Network

Hoc networks will have fewer nodes without any structure. Providing a reliable loss recovery is more energy efficient
and that is one of the main reasons why TCP is not fit for WSN.
2. Wireless Sensor Network Architecture In general, Transport layers can be separated into Packet
driven, Event driven. There are some popular protocols in the
The most common WSN architecture follows the OSI transport layer namely STCP (Sensor Transmission Control
architecture Model. The architecture of the WSN includes Protocol), PORT (Price-Oriented Reliable Transport Protocol
five layers and three cross layers. Mostly in sensor n/w we and PSFQ (pump slow fetch quick).
require five layers, namely application, transport, n/w, data
link & physical layer. The three cross planes are namely 2.3. Network Layer
power management, mobility management, and task The main function of the network layer is routing, it has a
management. These layers of the WSN are used to lot of tasks based on the application, but actually, the main
accomplish the n/w and make the sensors work together in tasks are in the power conserving, partial memory, buffers,
order to raise the complete efficiency of the network [4]. and sensor don’t have a universal ID and have to be
self-organized.
The simple idea of the routing protocol is to explain a reliable
lane and redundant lanes, according to a convinced scale called
metric, which varies from protocol to protocol. There are a lot
of existing protocols for this network layer, they can be separate
into; flat routing and hierarchal routing or can be separated into
time driven, query-driven & event driven [6].
2.4. Data Link Layer

The data link layer is liable for multiplexing data frame

detection, data streams, MAC, & error control, confirm the
reliability of point–point (or) point–multipoint.
2.5. Physical Layer

Figure 1. Layer of wireless sensor networks. The physical layer provides an edge for transferring a
stream of bits above physical medium. This layer is
2.1. Application Layer responsible for the selection of frequency, generation of a
carrier frequency, signal detection, Modulation & data
The application layer is liable for traffic management and encryption. IEEE 802.15.4 is suggested as typical for low rate
offers software for numerous applications that convert the data particular areas & wireless sensor network with low cost,
in a clear form to find positive information. Sensor networks power consumption, density, the range of communication to
arranged in numerous applications in different fields such as improve the battery life. CSMA/CA is used to support star &
agricultural, military, environment, medical, etc. peer to peer topology. There are several versions of IEEE
2.2. Transport Layer 802.15.4. V [7].

The function of the transport layer is to deliver congestion 3. WSN Network Topologies
avoidance and reliability where a lot of protocols intended to
offer this function are either practical on the upstream. These For radio communication networks, the structure of a
protocols use dissimilar mechanisms for loss recognition and WSN includes various topologies like the ones given below.
loss recovery. The transport layer is exactly needed when a
system is planned to contact other networks [5].

Figure 2. Wireless Sensor Network Topologies.

 International Journal of Sensors and Sensor Networks 2019; 7(1): 9-15 11

3.1. Star Topologies 3.3. Mesh Topologies

Figure 3. Star Topologies. Figure 5. Mesh Topologies.

Star topology is a communication topology, where each The Mesh topologies allow transmission of data from one
node connects directly to a gateway. A single gateway can node to another, which is within its radio transmission range.
send or receive a message to a number of remote nodes. In star If a node wants to send a message to another node, which is
topologies, the nodes are not permitted to send messages to out of radio communication range, it needs an intermediate
each other. This allows low-latency communications between node to forward the message to the desired node [9]. The
the remote node and the gateway (base station). advantage with this mesh topology includes easy isolation and
Due to its dependency on a single node to manage the detection of faults in the network. The disadvantage is that the
network, the gateway must be within the radio transmission network is large and requires huge investment.
range of all the individual nodes. The advantage includes the
ability to keep the remote nodes’ power consumption to a 4. Types of WSNs (Wireless Sensor
minimum and simply under control. The size of the network
depends on the number of connections made to the hub [8]. Networks)
3.2. Tree Topologies Depending on the environment, the types of networks are
decided so that those can be deployed underwater,
Tree topology is also called as cascaded star topology. In underground, on land, and so on. Different types of WSNs
tree topologies, each node connects to a node that is placed include:
higher in the tree, and then to the gateway. The main 1. Terrestrial WSNs.
advantage of the tree topology is that the expansion of a 2. Underground WSNs.
network can be easily possible, and also error detection 3. Underwater WSNs.
becomes easy. The disadvantage with this network is that it 4. Multimedia WSNs.
relies heavily on the bus cable; if it breaks, all the network will 5. Mobile WSNs.
collapse.
4.1. Terrestrial WSNs

Terrestrial WSNs are capable of communicating base

stations efficiently, and consist of hundreds to thousands of
wireless sensor nodes deployed either in unstructured (ad hoc)
or structured (Preplanned) manner. In an unstructured mode,
the sensor nodes are randomly distributed within the target
area that is dropped from a fixed plane. The preplanned or
structured mode considers optimal placement, grid placement,
and 2D, 3D placement models [10].
In this WSN, the battery power is limited; however, the
battery is equipped with solar cells as a secondary power
source. The Energy conservation of these WSNs is achieved
by using low duty cycle operations, minimizing delays, and
optimal routing, and so on.

Figure 4. Tree Network Topologies.

12 Mohaiminul Islam et al.: Study of Wireless Sensor Network

4.2. Underground WSNs nodes that are hidden in the ground to monitor underground
conditions. To relay information from the sensor nodes to the
The underground wireless sensor networks are more base station, additional sink nodes are located above the
expensive than the terrestrial WSNs in terms of deployment, ground.
maintenance, and equipment cost considerations and careful
planning. The WSNs networks consist of a number of sensor

Figure 6. Underground wireless sensor networks.

The underground wireless sensor networks deployed into In addition to this, the underground environment makes
the ground are difficult to recharge. The sensor battery nodes wireless communication a challenge due to high level of
equipped with a limited battery power are difficult to recharge. attenuation and signal loss.
4.3. Under Water WSNs

Figure 7. Underwater acoustic sensor networks.

More than 70% of the earth is occupied with water. These of underwater communication and networking techniques.
networks consist of a number of sensor nodes and vehicles
deployed under water. Autonomous underwater vehicles are 4.4. Multimedia WSNs
used for gathering data from these sensor nodes. A challenge Muttimedia wireless sensor networks have been proposed
of underwater communication is a long propagation delay, and to enable tracking and monitoring of events in the form of
bandwidth and sensor failures. multimedia, such as imaging, video, and audio. These
Under water WSNs are equipped with a limited battery that networks consist of low-cost sensor nodes equipped with
cannot be recharged or replaced. The issue of energy micrpphones and cameras. These nodes are interconnected
conservation for under water WSNs involves the development
 International Journal of Sensors and Sensor Networks 2019; 7(1): 9-15 13

with each other over a wireless connection for data compression, data retrieval and correlation.

Figure 8. Multimedia wireless sensor networks.

The challenges with the multimedia WSN include high can be moved on their own and can be interacted with the
energy consumption, high bandwidth requirements, data physical environment. The mobile nodes have the ability to
processing and compressing techniques. In addition to this, compute sense and communicate.
multimedia contents require high bandwidth for the contents The mobile wireless sensor networks are much more
to be delivered properly and easily [11]. versatile than the static sensor networks. The advantages of
MWSN over the static wireless sensor networks include better
4.5. Mobile WSNs and improved coverage, better energy efficiency, superior
These networks consist of a collection of sensor nodes that channel capacity, and so on.

5. Wireless Sensor Networks Applications

Figure 9. Wireless Sensor Networks Applications.

14 Mohaiminul Islam et al.: Study of Wireless Sensor Network

a) These networks are used in environmental tracking, such

as forest detection, animal tracking, flood detection, 8. Limitations of Wireless Sensor
forecasting and weather prediction, and also in
commercial applications like seismic activities Networks
prediction and monitoring. a) Possess very little storage capacity – a few hundred
b) Military applications, such as tracking and kilobytes.
environment monitoring surveillance applications use b) Possess modest processing power-8MHz.
these networks. The sensor nodes from sensor c) Works in short communication range – consumes a lot of
networks are dropped to the field of interest and are power.
remotely controlled by a user. Enemy tracking, d) Requires minimal energy – constrains protocols.
security detections are also performed by using these e) Have batteries with a finite life time.
networks. f) Passive devices provide little energy [15].
c) Health applications, such as Tracking and monitoring of
patients and doctors use these networks.
d) The most frequently used wireless sensor networks 9. Conclusion
applications in the field of Transport systems such as Smart environments represent the next evolutionary
monitoring of traffic, dynamic routing management development step in building, utilities, industrial, home,
and monitoring of parking lots, etc., use these shipboard, and transportation systems automation. Like
networks. any sentient organism, the smart environment relies first
e) Rapid emergency response, industrial process and foremost on sensory data from the real world. Sensory
monitoring, automated building climate control, data comes from multiple sensors of different moralities in
ecosystem and habitat monitoring, civil structural health distributed locations. The smart environment needs
monitoring, etc., use these networks [12]. information about its surroundings as well as about its
internal workings; this is captured in biological systems by
6. Characteristics of Wireless Sensor the distinction between exteroceptors and proprioceptors.
Wireless sensor networks are a group of specialized
Network devices or sensors which are used to monitor different
The characteristics of WSN include the following: environmental conditions and to collect and organize that
a) The consumption of Power limits for nodes with data at some certain central location. It detects and
batteries. measures a number of physical conditions such as
b) Capacity to handle with node failures. humidity, temperature, sound, pressure, speed and
c) Some mobility of nodes and Heterogeneity of nodes. direction, chemical concentrations, vibrations, pollutant
d) Scalability to large scale of distribution. levels and many other such conditions. It has much
e) Capability to ensure strict environmental conditions. application with microcontroller projects. Nowadays
f) Simple to use. wireless sensor network is playing a important role in the
g) Cross-layer design. whole world.

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