INTRODUCTION TO WSNS

 Sensor nodes offer a powerful combination of distributed sensing, computing and

communication.
 Wireless sensor network (is an infrastructure comprised of sensing measuring), computing,
and communication elements that gives a user the ability to instrument, observe, and react to
events and phenomena in a specified environment.
 There are four basic components in a WSN:
1. An assembly of distributed or localized sensors (sensing and computation nodes)
2. An interconnection network,
3. A central point of information gathering, and
4. A set of computing resources at the central point (or beyond) to handle data correlation,
event trending, status querying, and data mining.
 Traditionally, the sensors have been used in high-end applications, such as radiation
detection systems
 Later, they were used to in factory automation
 Most recently, they have a focus of much simpler applications, such as habitat and seismic
monitoring, and others directed to consumer applications
WSN ARCHITECTURE AND PROTOCOL STACK:
 WSNs are composed of a number of sensor nodes, which are densely deployed either inside a
physical phenomenon or very close to it.
 The sensor nodes are transceivers usually scattered in a sensor field where each of them has
the capability to collect data and route data back to the sink (collect data in WSN or Base
Station)/gateway and the end-users by a multi-hop infrastructureless architecture through the
sink.
 The sink may communicate with the task manager/end-user via the Internet or satellite or any
type of wireless network (like WiFi, mesh networks, cellular systems, WiMAX, etc.),
 There may be multiple sinks/gateways and multiple end-users in the architecture.
 In many cases the sink can be directly connected to the end-users.

(A WSN connected to the Internet via a sink node)

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 Each sensor node is consisting of five main components; a microcontroller unit, a transceiver unit, a
memory unit, a power unit and a sensor unit.
 Sensor: A sensor is a device that can detect the changes in a physical environment. It can convert
physical parameters such as temperature, heat, motion, humidity, pressure, etc. into electrical signals.
We can transform this signal into a human readable display and send them through a network for
further processing.
 Actuator: Actuator is a device that converts the electrical signals into the physical events or
characteristics. It obtains a control signal in the form of electric voltage, current, hydraulic fluid,
pneumatic or hydraulic pressure. The actuator converts the received control signal into mechanical
motion. Furthermore, speed, force, operating conditions and durability are some important facts to
consider when determining the performance of an actuator.

(Components of a node of a WSN)

 The analog signals produced by the sensor based on the observed phenomenon are converted to
digital signals by the ADC, and then fed into the processing unit.
 In WSNs, the sensor nodes have the dual functionality of being both data originators and data
routers. Hence, communication is performed for two reasons:
1. Source function: Each sensor node’s primary role is to gather data from the environment through
the various sensors. The data generated from sensing the environment need to be processed and
transmitted to nearby sensor nodes for multi-hop delivery to the sink.
2. Router function: The low-power communication techniques in WSNs limit the communication
range of a node. In a large network, multi-hop communication is required so that nodes relay the
information sent by their neighbors to the data collector, i.e., the sink. Accordingly, the sensor
node is responsible for receiving the data sent by its neighbors and forwarding these data to one
of its neighbors according to the routing decisions.

(WSN having a star topology) (WSN having with multihop communication)

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CHALLENGES AND CONSTRAINTS:
While sensor networks share many similarities with other distributed systems, they are subject to
a variety of unique challenges and constraints.
These constraints impact the design of a WSN, leading to protocols and algorithms that differ
from their counterparts in other distributed systems.
These challenges are:
Application requirements and Environment interaction:
 WSNs are environmental event-driven, their activity graph can vary a lot during time.
Physical Resource Constraints:
 The most important constraint imposed on sensor network is the limited battery power of
sensor nodes.
 The effective lifetime of a sensor node is directly determined by its power supply.
 Limited computational power and memory size is another constraint that affects the
amount of data that can be stored in individual sensor nodes.
 So the protocol should be simple and light-weighted.
 Communication delay in sensor network can be high due to limited communication
channel shared by all nodes within each other’s transmission range.
Self-Management:
It is the nature of many sensor network applications that they must operate in remote areas and
harsh environments, without infrastructure support or the possibility for maintenance and repair.
Therefore, sensor nodes must be self-managing in that they configure themselves.
Ad Hoc Deployment:
 Sensor nodes are randomly deployed over the region without any infrastructure and prior
knowledge of topology.
 It is up to the nodes to identify its connectivity and distribution between the nodes.
 Many sensor networks, once deployed, must operate without human intervention, that is,
configuration, adaptation, maintenance, and repair must be performed in an autonomous
fashion.
 A self-managing device will monitor its surroundings, adapt to changes in the
environment, and cooperate with neighboring devices to form topologies or agree on
sensing, processing, and communication strategies.
 Self-organization is the term frequently used to describe a network’s ability to adapt
configuration parameters based on system and environmental state.
 Self-optimization refers to a device’s ability to monitor and optimize the use of its own
system resources.
 Self-protection allows a device to recognize and protect itself from intrusions and attacks.
 Self-heal allows sensor nodes to discover, identify, and react to network disruptions.
Wireless Networking:

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  The reliance on wireless networks and communications poses a number of challenges to a
sensor network designer.
 An increasing distance between a sensor node and a base station rapidly increases the
required transmission power.
 Therefore, it is more energy-efficient to split a large distance into several shorter
distances, leading to the challenge of supporting multi-hop communications and routing.
 Many sensor nodes use a power conservation policy where radios are switched off when
they are not in use
 Another strategy is adaptive duty cycling, when not all nodes are allowed to sleep at the
same time. Instead, a subset of the nodes in a network remains active to form a network
backbone.
Decentralized Management:
Sensor nodes must collaborate with their neighbors to make localized decisions, that is,
without global knowledge.
The results of these decentralized (or distributed) algorithms will not be optimal, but they
may be more energy-efficient than centralized solutions.
Consider routing as an example for centralized and decentralized solutions. A base station
can collect information from all sensor nodes, establish routes that are optimal (e.g., in terms
of energy), and inform each node of its route. However, the overhead can be significant,
particularly if the topology changes frequently. Instead, a decentralized approach allows each
node to make routing decisions based on limited local information (e.g., a list of the node’s
neighbors, including their distances to the base station).
Design Constraints:
 The primary goal of wireless sensor design is to create smaller, cheaper, and more
efficient devices.
 The lack of advanced hardware features (e.g., support for parallel executions) facilitates
the design of small and efficient operating systems.
 A sensor’s hardware constraints also affect the design of many protocols and algorithms
executed in a WSN.
 Many software architectures and solutions (operating system, middleware, network
protocols) must be designed to operate efficiently on very resource constrained hardware.
Security:
 Many wireless sensor networks collect sensitive information. The remote and unattended
operation of sensor nodes increases their exposure to malicious intrusions and attacks.
 Further, wireless communications make it easy for an adversary to eavesdrop on sensor
transmissions
 Sensor networks require new solutions for key establishment and distribution, node
authentication, and secrecy.
Fault-Tolerance:
 In a hostile environment, a sensor node may fail due to physical damage or lack of energy
(power).

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  If some nodes fail, the protocols that are working upon must accommodate these changes
in the network.
 As an example, for routing or aggregation protocol, they must find suitable paths or
aggregation point in case of these kinds of failures.
Scalability:
 Most of the applications are needed; the number of sensor nodes deployed must be in
order of hundreds, thousands or more.
 The protocols must scalable enough to respond and operate with such large number of
sensor nodes.

Elements of WSN

A typical wireless sensor network can be divided into two elements. They are:

 Sensor Node
 Network Architecture

Sensor Node

A Sensor Node in a WSN consists of four basic components. They are:

 Power Supply
 Sensor
 Processing Unit
 Communication System

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The sensor collects the analog data from the physical world and an ADC converts this data to
digital data. The main processing unit, which is usually a microprocessor or a microcontroller,
performs an intelligent data processing and manipulation.

Communication system consists of radio system, usually a short-range radio, for data
transmission and reception. As all the components are low-power devices, a small battery like
CR-2032, is used to power the entire system.

Despite the name, a Sensor Node consists of not only the sensing component but also other
important features like processing, communication and storage units. With all these features,
components and enhancements, a Sensor Node is responsible for physical world data collection,
network analysis, data correlation and fusion of data from other sensor with its own data.

Network Architecture

When a large number of sensor nodes are deployed in a large area to co-operatively monitor a
physical environment, the networking of these sensor nodes is equally important. A sensor node
in a WSN not only communicates with other sensor nodes but also with a Base Station (BS)
using wireless communication.

The base station sends commands to the sensor nodes and the sensor node perform the task by
collaborating with each other. After collecting the necessary data, the sensor nodes send the data
back to the base station.

A base station also acts as a gateway to other networks through the internet. After receiving the
data from the sensor nodes, a base station performs simple data processing and sends the updated
information to the user using internet.

If each sensor node is connected to the base station, it is known as Single-hop network
architecture. Although long distance transmission is possible, the energy consumption for
communication will be significantly higher than data collection and computation.

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Hence, Multi-hop network architecture is usually used. Instead of one single link between the
sensor node and the base station, the data is transmitted through one or more intermediate node.

This can be implemented in two ways. Flat network architecture and Hierarchical network
architecture. In flat architecture, the base station sends commands to all the sensor nodes but the
sensor node with matching query will respond using its peer nodes via a multi-hop path.

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In hierarchical architecture, a group of sensor nodes are formed as a cluster and the sensor nodes
transmit data to corresponding cluster heads. The cluster heads can then relay the data to the base
station.

Classification of Wireless Sensor Networks

Wireless Sensor Networks are extremely application specific and are deployed according to the
requirements of the application. Hence, the characteristics of one WSN will be different to that
of another WSN.

Irrespective of the application, Wireless Sensor Networks in general can be classified into the
following categories.

 Static and Mobile WSN

 Deterministic and Nondeterministic WSN
 Single Base Station and Multi Base Station WSN
 Static Base Station and Mobile Base Station WSN
 Single-hop and Multi-hop WSN
 Self – Reconfigurable and Non – Self – Configurable WSN
 Homogeneous and Heterogeneous WSN

Static and Mobile WSN

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In many applications, all the sensor nodes are fixed without movement and these are static
networks. Some applications, especially in biological systems, require mobile sensor nodes.
These are known as mobile networks. An example of mobile network is animal monitoring.

Deterministic and Nondeterministic WSN

In a deterministic WSN, the position of a sensor node is calculated and fixed. The pre-planned
deployment of sensor nodes is possible in only a limited number of applications. In most
application, determining the position of sensor nodes is not possible due to several factors like
harsh environment or hostile operating conditions. Such networks are nondeterministic and
require a complex control system

Single Base Station and Multi Base Station WSN

In a single base station WSN, only a single base station is used which is located close to the
sensor node region. All the sensor nodes communicate with this base station, in case of a multi
base station WSN, more than base station is used and a sensor node can transfer data to the
closest base station.

Static Base Station and Mobile Base Station WSN

Similar to sensor nodes, even base stations can be either static or mobile. A static base station
has a fixed position usually close to the sensing region. A mobile base station moves around the
sensing region so that the load of sensor nodes is balanced.

Single-hop and Multi-hop WSN

In a single-hop WSN, the sensor nodes are directly connected to the base station. In case of
multi-hop WSN, peer nodes and cluster heads are used to relay the data so that energy
consumption is reduced.

Self – Reconfigurable and Non – Self – Configurable WSN

In a non – Self – Configurable WSN, the sensor networks cannot organize themselves in a
network and rely on a control unit to collect information. In most WSNs, the sensor nodes are
capable of organizing and maintaining the connection and work collaboratively with other sensor
nodes to accomplish the task.

Homogeneous and Heterogeneous WSN

In a homogeneous WSN, all the sensor nodes have similar energy consumption, computational
power and storage capabilities. In case on heterogenous WSN, some sensor nodes have higher
computational power and energy requirements than other and the processing and communication
tasks are divided accordingly.

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Network Topologies in WSN

We have already seen that a WSN can be either a single-hop network or a multi-hop network.
The following are a few different network topologies that are used in WSNs.

Star Topology

In star topology, there is a single central node known as hub or switch and every node in the
network is connected to this hub. Star topology is very easy to implement, design and expand. As
all the data flows through the hub, it plays an important role in the network and a failure in the
hub can result in failure of entire network.

Tree Topology

A tree topology is a hierarchical network where there is a single root node at the top and this
node is connected to many nodes in the next level and this continues. The processing power and
energy consumption is highest at the root node and keeps on decreasing as we go down the
hierarchical order.

Mesh Topology

In mesh topology, apart from transmitting its own data, each node also acts as a relay for
transmitting data of other connected nodes. Mesh topologies are further divided into Fully
Connected Mesh and Partially Connected Mesh.

In fully connected mesh topology, each node is connected to every other node while in partially
connected mesh topology, a node is connected one or more neighbouring nodes.

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Applications of Wireless Sensor Networks

Theoretically speaking, the possible applications of Wireless Sensor Networks are unlimited.
Some of the commonly used applications of wireless sensor networks are listed below.

 Air Traffic Control (ATC)

 Heating Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC)
 Industrial Assembly Line
 Automotive Sensors
 Battlefield Management and Surveillance
 Biomedical Applications
 Bridge and Highway Monitoring
 Disaster Management
 Earthquake Detection
 Electricity Load Management
 Environment Control and Monitoring
 Industrial Automation
 Inventory Management
 Personal Health Care
 Security Systems
 Tsunami Alert Systems
 Weather Sensing and Monitoring

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Applications of WSN:

Various applications of WSNs are currently either already in mature use or still in infant stages
of Development. WSN applications are classified according to the nature of their use into
different categories:
1. Structural Health Monitoring
2. Habitat Monitoring
3. Smart Transportation
4. Health Care
5. Pipeline Monitoring
6. Precision Agriculture
7. Active Volcano
8. Underground Mining
9. Tracking Chemical Plumes

1. Structural Health Monitoring

 The aim of Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) in buildings and other types of civil
engineering substructures, is to monitor their integrity and to detect the existence and the
extent of damages in the materials or/and the structure of their bodies.

 The use of wireless sensors facilitates the accomplishment of tasks of this kind both in a
periodic basis and after critical events (e.g., earthquakes).

 WSNs can be employed for monitoring the movement of diverse structural projects such
as buildings and other infrastructural projects like flyovers, bridges, roads, embankments,
tunnels etc., allowing manufacturing/engineering practices to monitor possessions
remotely without necessarily visiting the sites, and this would reduce expenses that would
have been incurred from physical site visitations.

2. Habitat Monitoring:

 Habitat monitoring is one of the essential parts in environmental monitoring.

 Habitat means a place in which an animal or plant naturally grows or lives. Therefore,
habitat monitoring is important to make sure their species autonomies and prevent any
ecological disturbance for animals and plants.

 Pollution can cause negative impact to health and ecological balance. Therefore, it is
important to manage a system that can monitor pollution so that it is under controlled.

 Web based graphical user interface is used to manage the data of pollution efficiently.

Transportation Applications:

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  Instantaneous traffic statistics is being composed by WSNs to later forage transportation
models and keep the drivers on alert of possible congestion and traffic difficulties.

Medical/Health Applications:
Some of the medical/health benefits of WSNs are in the areas of diagnostics,
investigative, and drug administration as well as management, supporting interfaces for
the incapacitated, integrated patient monitoring and management, tele-monitoring of
human physiological information, and tracking and monitoring medical practitioners or
patients inside the medical facility. According to Nwankwo et al. [22] nanoinformatics
and nanomedicine are now beginning to advance in clinical applications via the use of
biosensors.

Agriculture
Agriculture is one of the most interesting fields where WSNs can be used. That is due to the
agriculture specific tasks which make it possible to use in practice almost all modern
developments in WSN:
To monitor vast areas it is necessary to create networks which consists of dozens thousands of
sensors;
The existence of several kinds of measured values (temperature, humidity, chemical
composition of the soil) makes it necessary to operate with heterogeneous networks;
The necessity to work with mobile objects for animal husbandry tasks;
Emerging of automatically controlled agricultural machinery creates a wide range of applications
for machine-oriented communications and sensor control networks (to learn more about these
technologies, see Sections 6.5 and 6.4);
The difficulty of battery changing in the field makes it necessary to create energy effective
sensors and radio transceivers;
Good opportunities for data mining application.
WSN applications are closely related with a term “precision agriculture” which now becomes
more and more popular. It is based on the idea of distributing such resources as water, seeds
and fertilizers not evenly or by pieces, as it is done in traditional agriculture, but in dosage
according to conditions (temperature, light, composition of the soil) of each specific spot. It
allows to reach two goals: on the one hand, consumption of resources is reducing, on the other
hand, productivity of a land site is increasing. In addition, it is rather important that
implementing of this idea leads to reducing environmental damage.
Among the precision agriculture technologies we can name the following ones:
Selective irrigation;
Fertilizers distribution control;
Productivity mapping;
Weeds detecting;
Soil mineralization detecting;
Optimal planning of irrigation systems, tracks, protective planting and surveying the territory
according to the soil peculiarities.
Let’s consider the examples of successful WSN deployment in agriculture.

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