Perspectives on Enabling Technologies for Intelligent Wireless Sensor Networks

Abstract

Wireless sensor network (WSN) is a network of low-size and low-complexity devices that sense the environment and communicate the gathered data through wireless channels. The sensors sense the environment, and send data to control unit for processing and decisions. The data is forwarded via multiple hops or is connected to other network through a gateway. WSNs have a wide range of applications from monitoring environment and surveillance, to precision agriculture, and from biomedical to structural and infrastructure health monitoring. Technological advances in the past decades have resulted in small, inexpensive and powerful sensors with embedded processing and radio networking capability. Distributed smart sensor devices networked through the radio link and deployed in large numbers provide enormous opportunities. These sensors can be deployed in the air, on the ground, in the vehicles, in or around buildings, bridges, or even on the patient’s body.