WIRELESS SENSOR NETWORKS

T.Y.Bsc.CS SEM VI 2018-19

-Ms. PRATIKSHA HARWALKAR
Sensor Node Hardware and
Network Architecture
 SINGLE-NODE ARCHITECTURE
HARDWARE COMPONENTS
 Choosing the hardware components for a wireless sensor
node has to consider size, costs, and energy
consumption of the nodes.
 A basic sensor node contains five main components such
as:
1. Controller
2. Memory
3. Sensors and Actuators
4. Communication devices and
5. Power supply Unit.
Sensor node Hardware components
1. Controller:
 The controller is the core of a wireless sensor node, it
process all the relevant data, capable of executing
arbitrary code.
 It collects data from the sensors, processes this data,
decides when and where to send it, similarly receives
data from other sensor nodes and decides on the
actuator’s behavior.
 It has to execute various programs, hence it is the
Central Processing Unit (CPU) of the node.
2. Memory:
 Memory is required to store programs and intermediate
data; usually, different types of memory are used for
programs and data.
 In WSN there is a need for Random Access Memory
(RAM) to store intermediate sensor readings, packets
from other nodes, and so on.
 RAM is fast, its main disadvantage is that it loses its
content if power supply is interrupted.
 Program code can be stored in Read-Only Memory
(ROM) or in Electrically Erasable Programmable Read-
Only Memory (EEPROM) or flash memory.
 Flash memory is similar to EEPROM but allowing data to
be erased or written in blocks instead of only a byte at a
time.
 It can also serve as intermediate storage of data in case
RAM is insufficient or the power supply of RAM should
be shut down.
3. Sensor and Actuator:
The actual interface to the physical world: The devices that
can observe or control physical parameters of the
environment.
Sensor:
 Due to power and bandwidth constraints WSN devices
primarily support only low data rate sensing. These
actively analyses the environment.
 They may include temperature sensors, light sensors,
humidity sensors, pressure sensors, chemical sensors,
etc.
Actuator:
 Actuators are just about as diverse as sensors, yet for
the purposes of designing a WSN that converts electrical
signals into physical phenomenon.
4. Communication Device:
 To turn nodes into a network a device is required for
sending and receiving information over a wireless
channel.
 The communication device is used to exchange data
between individual nodes.
 In some cases, wired communication can actually be the
method of choice and is frequently applied in many
sensor networks.
 The case of wireless communication is considerably more
interesting because it includes radio frequencies. Radio
Frequency (RF)-based communication is by far the most
relevant one as it best fits the requirements of most
WSN applications.
Transceivers:
 For Communication, both transmitter and receiver are
required in a sensor node to convert a bit stream coming
from a microcontroller and convert them to and from
radio waves.
 For two tasks a combined device called transceiver is
used.
 Transmitter transmits the data and receiver receives it.
This process is termed as Transceiver in the
communication process.
5. Power Supply
 Some form of batteries are necessary to provide energy
to sensor nodes.
 Sometimes, some form of recharging by obtaining energy
from the environment is available as well (e.g. solar cells).
 For flexible deployment the WSN device likely to be
battery powered. And while some of the nodes may be
wired to a continuous nodes power source in some
application.
 OPERATING SYSTEMS AND EXECUTION
ENVIRONMENTS
Embedded operating systems:
 An operating system (OS) is system software that
manages computer hardware and software resources i.e
acts as an intermediary between programs and the
computer hardware.
 An embedded system is some combination of computer
hardware and software, either fixed in capability or
programmable, that is specifically designed for a
particular function.
 Embedded operating systems (EOS) are designed to be
used in embedded computer systems.
 TinyOS
 TinyOS is an open-source, flexible and Application-
Specific Operating System for wireless sensor networks.
 WSN consists of a large number of tiny and low-power
nodes, each of which executes simultaneous and
reactive programs that must work with strict memory
and power constraints. TinyOS meets these challenges.
 TinyOS was designed specifically for WSNs. It introduces
a structured event-driven execution model and a
component-based software design
Salient features of TinyOS are
 Has Event-based concurrency model
 Component-based architecture.
 TinyOS’s component library includes network protocols,
distributed services, sensor drivers, and data acquisition
tools.
 TinyOS’s event-driven execution model
 Selected components are linked into program at compile
time.
 Written in nesC and C
 TinyOS with NesC
A nesC application consists of one or
more components assembled, or wired, to form an
application executable.
 Components define two scopes: one for their
specification which contains the names of
their interfaces, and a second scope for their
implementation.
 A component provides and uses interfaces.
 The provided interfaces are intended to represent the
functionality that the component provides to its user in
its specification; the used interfaces represent the
functionality the component needs to perform its job in
its implementation.
 TinyOS and its application are written using nesC
programming language, which is a dialect of C.
 The basic unit of nesC code are components.
Components are wired by interfaces.
 The basic unit to wiring components are configurations.

A B
 Interface
 Interfaces are bidirectional: they specify a set
of commands, which are functions to be implemented by
the interface’s provider, and a set of events, which are
functions to be implemented by the interface’s user.
 For a component to call the commands in an interface, it
must implement the events of that interface.
 A single component may use or provide multiple
interfaces and multiple instances of the same interface.
 Interface (provide and use)

User

Commands
Interface

Events
Provider
Module BlinkC {
use interface xxxx;
provide interface xxxxxxx;
.........
}
18
 If a component calls a command, it uses the interface
and the component which implements this command is
the provider of this interface.
 If a component calls an event function, it is the provider
of the event, and the component which implements this
event function is the user of the event.
 Configuration and Modules
Components are classified into configuration components
and modules.
 Modules provide the implementations of one or more
interfaces.
 Configurations are used to assemble other components
together, connecting interfaces used by components to
interfaces provided by others.
 NETWORK ARCHITECTURE
It introduces the basic principles of turning individual
sensor nodes into a wireless sensor network. In this
optimization goals of how a network should function are
discussed as :
 Sensor network scenarios
 Optimization goals and figures of merit
 Gateway concepts
 SENSOR NETWORK SCENARIOS
Types of sources and sinks:
 Source is any unit in the network that can provide
information (sensor node).
 A sink is the unit where information is required, it could
belong to the sensor network or outside this network to
interact with another network or a gateway to another
larger Internet.
Single-hop sensor network :
 There are three types of sinks in a very single – hop
sensor network :
 In the first case, the sink could be an another sensor
node from a sensor network.
 this second case, the sink could be an actual device, for
example, a hand-held or PDA used to interact with the
sensor network;
 It could also be merely a gateway to another larger
network such as the Internet, where the actual request
for the information comes from some node "far away"
and only indirectly connected to such a sensor network.
 These main types of sinks are illustrated by Figure
showing sources and sinks in direct communication.
 Multi-hop networks
 Because of limited distance the direct communication
between source and sink is not always possible.
 In WSNs, to cover a lot of environment the data packets
taking multi hops from source to the sink.
 To overcome such limited distances it better to use
relay stations, The data packets taking multi hops from
source to the sink as shown in Figure, Depending on
the particular application of having an intermediate
sensor node at the right place is high.
 Three types of mobility
In the scenarios discussed above, all participants were
stationary. But one of the main virtues of wireless
communication is its ability to support mobile participants
In wireless sensor networks, mobility can appear in three
main forms:
1. mobility of the sensor nodes
2. mobility of the sink node(s)
3. mobility of a monitored event/object.
1. Node mobility
 This kind of mobility occurs when at least part of the
sensor nodes is mobile.
 A mobile node is an Internet-connected device whose
location and point of attachment to the Internet may
frequently be changed. This kind of node is often a
cellular telephone or handheld or laptop computer.
2. Sink mobility
 The second kind of mobility refers to a situation in which
sink nodes are able to autonomously move in the
monitored region, with the purpose of collecting data
from the sensor network.
 As the location of the sink is changing, sensor nodes are
enabled to send the data packages to the sink when sink
is nearby.
3. Event or Object mobility:
 In tracking applications, the cause of the events or the
objects to be tracked can be mobile.
 In such scenarios, it is (usually) important that the
observed event is covered by a sufficient number of
sensors at all time.
 As the event source moves through the network, it is
accompanied by an area of activity within the network.
 works under the event-driven data model. In this case,
modeling the occurrence and mobility of an event to be
monitored (e.g., a gas leak and movement of the
resulting gas plume) is useful for understanding the
resulting data traffic pattern in the WSN.
 Similarly, when the WSN is used for target tracking,
modeling target movement is useful for estimating the
amount and pattern of data generated in the WSN
during target tracking.
 OPTIMIZATION GOALS AND FIGURES OF MERIT
 For all WSN scenarios and application types have to face
the challenges such as
How to optimize a network and How to compare these
solutions?
How to decide which approach is better?
 How to turn relatively inaccurate optimization goals into
measurable figures of merit?
For all the above questions the general answer is obtained
from
 Energy efficiency
 Scalability
 Robustness
 Gateway Concept
 SCALABILITY
 The ability to maintain performance characteristics
irrespective of the size of the network is referred to as
scalability.
 With WSN potentially consisting of thousands of
nodes, scalability is an obviously essential requirement
 The need for extreme scalability has direct
consequences for the protocol design.
 Often, a penalty in performance or complexity has to
be paid for small networks .
 Architectures and protocols should implement
appropriate scalability support rather than trying to be
as scalable as possible.
 Applications with a few dozen nodes might admit more-
efficient solutions than applications with thousands of
nodes.

Robustness
 Wireless sensor networks should also exhibit an
appropriate robustness.
 They should not fail just because a limited number of
nodes run out of energy, or because their environment
changes and severs existing radio links between two
nodes.
 If possible, these failures have to be compensated by
finding other routes.
 GATEWAY CONCEPTS
• Need for gateways
The integration of the WSN with Internet is required to
share data over the web. Among many solutions, the
simplest gateway based approach does the conversion of
protocol stacks and logical address formats used in both
networks.
The phenomenon sensed in the sensor network needs to
be accessed by a remote user. The communication may be
from WSN to remote user or remote user to WSN.
That is, whenever there is an alert message indicating the
detection of abnormality, the network transmits the
message to the user, while a query can be sent by the
remote user to obtain the status of the application
 In both scenarios, a link is required that interconnects
remote user with the network. Gateway does this task.
Figure 1.16 shows this networking scenario,
 The WSN first of all has to be able to exchange data
with such a mobile device or with some sort of gateway,
which provides the physical connection to the Internet.
 The gateway node could be fixed or mobile with an
ability to connect sensor networks to the outer existing
communication infrastructure, such as Internet, cellular
and satellite networks. Similarly the memory capacity is
also more.
A wireless sensor network with gateway node, enabling
access to remote client via the internet

Fig. Illustration of Gateway Concept in WSN

WSN to Internet Communication:
 In case of event based applications like temperature
monitoring, vital parameter monitoring in an Intensive
Care Unit (ICU) etc., an event is generated whenever an
abnormal condition is reached as shown in the Fig.
 In these time-critical applications, the sensed event
needs to be delivered to the remote user as an alert
message.
 To accomplish this task, gateway is used which provides
interconnection of WSN with remote user via Internet.
However several problems exists in the interconnection
that are listed below
 To identify the gateway within the network
 Routing and service discovery problem
 Selection of gateway with IP enabled device if more than
one gateway is available
The solution to address the above problem is to
build an IP overlay network atop the sensor networks.
Identification of Internet host to which the alerts has to be
sent is another issue. Gateway does the function similarly
to Network Address Translator (NAT) which works on
concept of snooping.
Fig. WSN to Internet Communication
 Internet to WSN Communication
Tunnelling:
 The actual interaction between a WSN and Internet
host is built using gateway. It uses Internet as a
transport network and does "tunnelling" of all protocol
message between WSN and Internet host
 A gateway device acts as a proxy which allows only
privileged users to access the sensed information.
However it results in acceptable time delay as it involves
several translation functions. Integration of IPv6 over
wireless sensor network is the upcoming technology
which resolves this problem.
Fig. Connecting two WSNs with a tunnel over the Internet