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Wireless Sensor Networks: Concepts and Components

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Wireless Sensors in Heterogeneous Networked Systems

Part of the book series: Computer Communications and Networks ((CCN))

Abstract

This chapter describes the major concepts behind wireless sensor networks (WSN). It is a good reference for anyone interested in learning how wireless sensors and wireless sensor networks work and what different solutions exist in terms of operating software, network layouts and routing. An extensive discussion and revision of related work and state of the art in those issues is presented. It starts by discussing the main components of wireless sensor networks, which enable wireless connectivity within the network, connecting an application platform at one end of the network with one or more sensor or actuator devices in any part of the network. Then, since sensor, actuation and computation nodes are essential components in distributed systems with wireless sensor nodes, we discuss the principal characteristics of those nodes and the WSN software platforms designed for limited node hardware. These WSN software platforms are different from full-blown operating systems, since they lack, for instance, a powerful scheduler, memory management and elaborate file system support. Lastly, since a wireless sensor network may consist of tens, hundreds or thousands of devices, network topologies, data models and routing techniques must be considered in its design. This chapter also includes an overview of current network topologies, data models and routing techniques for WSN.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal

    José Cecílio & Pedro Furtado

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  1. José Cecílio
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  2. Pedro Furtado
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© 2014 Springer International Publishing Switzerland

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Cecílio, J., Furtado, P. (2014). Wireless Sensor Networks: Concepts and Components. In: Wireless Sensors in Heterogeneous Networked Systems. Computer Communications and Networks. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-09280-5_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-09280-5_2

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-09279-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-09280-5

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