A survey on

Sensor Networks
Prabhu Teja G
M.Tech. in Network & Internet Engg.
Dept. Of Computer Science
School of Engg. & Tech.
Pondicherry University
 What is SENSOR?

What is SENSOR NODE?

and
What is (Mobile) SENSOR NETWORK?
 What is a ‘Sensor’?
From Human senses to devices

Instruments are more precise. They give

us an exact temperature, humidity,
heart rate

You feel COLD

Thermometer Exercise Meter

Heart Monitor

You feel WET

You feel your heart

pumping! Rain Gauge
Humidity Meter
Some Important Definitions
Sensor:
A transducer that converts a physical phenomenon such as heat,
light, sound, or motion into electrical or other signals that may be
further manipulated by other apparatus.
Sensor Node:
A basic unit in a sensor network, with on-board sensors, processor,
memory, wireless modem, and power supply. It is often abbreviated
as node. When a node has only a single sensor on board, the node is
sometimes also referred as sensor, creating some confusion.
Sensor Network:
A wireless sensor network consists of a large number of tiny, low-cost,
low-power, sensor nodes, which are capable of observing the
environment, processing data and communicating each other by
radio.
 P2P
hierarchy of
network types
Wired Wireless

Wireless
Ad-hoc
hybrid
Mobile Wireless Wireless
Ad-hoc Mesh Sensor

Static Mobile
VANET InVANET iMANET Sensor Sensor
P2P Network:
A network without the notion of clients or servers, but
only equal peer nodes that simultaneously function as
both clients and servers
Wireless Ad-hoc Network:
-A wireless ad hoc network is a decentralized
wireless network. The network is ad hoc because it does
not rely on a preexisting infrastructure, such as routers in
wired networks or access points in managed
(infrastructure) wireless networks.
-Each node participates in routing by forwarding data
for other nodes, and so the determination of which nodes
forward data is made dynamically based on the network
connectivity.
Wireless Mesh Network:
WMNs is a self organized, self configured and
decentralized wireless network. There are two kinds of nodes
in WMN:
1. Mesh router. 2. Mobile client.
-Mesh routers with powerful capacities and lower mobility
are automatically setup and maintain wireless connection
forming the backbone of WMNs.
-It provides interconnections among all networked nodes,
where each node can send and receive data directly to each
other
- WMNs are able to automatically discover topology
change and self adaptively modify routing for more efficient
data transmission
- WMNs are teach to achieve load balance by routing
parts of data to gateway nodes with lower load
Mobile Ad-hoc Networks:
A mobile ad-hoc network is a collection of autonomous mobile
nodes that communicate with each other over wireless links without
any central administration.
In ad-hoc networks, each host has to act as a router for itself to
communicate with hosts outside its transmission range due to the
limited range of each host's wireless transmission.

Types of MANET
• Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks (VANETs) are used for communication
among vehicles and between vehicles and roadside equipment.
• Intelligent vehicular ad hoc networks (InVANETs) are a kind of
artificial intelligence that helps vehicles to behave in intelligent
manners during vehicle-to-vehicle collisions, accidents, drunken
driving etc.
• Internet Based Mobile Ad-hoc Networks (iMANETs) are ad-hoc
networks that link mobile nodes and fixed Internet-gateway nodes.
In such type of networks normal ad-hoc routing algorithms don't
apply directly.
Wireless Sensor Networks
Some more Definitions for Sensor Networks:

A sensor network is composed of a large number of sensor nodes, which are

densely deployed either inside the phenomenon or very close to it.
or
Sensor Networks (WSN) are usually a set of battery-supplied small devices.
A sensor network can be described as a collection of sensor nodes which co-
ordinate to perform some specific action.
or
Sensor networks are dense wireless networks of small, low-cost sensors,
which collect and disseminate environmental data.
or
Sensor network (WSN) is a computer network consisting of large number of
small devices distributed in different places
or
A network consisting of spatially distributed autonomous devices using
sensors to cooperatively monitor physical or environmental conditions, such
as temperature, sound, vibration, pressure, motion or pollutants, at different
locations
My definition for WSN
A wireless sensor network consists of a large
number of tiny, low-cost, low-power, battery operated
and coordinated sensor nodes, which are capable of
observing the environment, processing data and
communicating each other by radio, are deployed
densely over the monitoring area to perform a
specific task such as temperature, sound, vibration,
pressure, motion or pollutants at different locations.

– Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) are mainly used

in the emergency services. It can also be called
Emergency Services Networks (ESNs).
Sensor networks Vs Ad hoc networks:
• The number of nodes in a sensor network can
be several orders of magnitude higher than the
nodes in an ad hoc network.
• Sensor nodes are densely deployed.
• Sensor nodes are limited in power,
computational capacities and memory.
• Sensor nodes are prone to failures.
• The topology of a sensor network changes
frequently.
• Sensor nodes mainly use broadcast, most ad
hoc networks are based on p2p.
• Sensor nodes may not have global ID.
Sensor Network Application
Classes
Applications of sensor networks
Military applications
• Enhanced logistics systems to monitor friendly forces, equipment and
ammunition.
• Enhanced surveillance systems to detect intruders, chemical or
biological attacks, underwater targets, firing guns and their locations.
• Enhanced discovery systems that can run in inaccessible or
contaminated terrains and beyond the enemy lines.
• Enhanced targeting and target tracking systems.
• Enhanced guidance and navigation systems
• Reconnaissance of opposing forces and terrain
• Battle damage assessment system
Applications of sensor networks

Environmental applications
• Forest fire detection
• Bio-complexity mapping of the
environment
• Flood detection
• Precision agriculture
Applications of sensor networks
Health applications
• Tele-monitoring of human physiological data
• Tracking and monitoring patients and doctors inside
a hospital
• Drug administration in hospitals
Applications of sensor networks
Home and other commercial applications
• Home automation and Smart environment
• Interactive museums
• Managing inventory control
• Vehicle tracking and detection
• Detecting and monitoring car thefts
Vehicle Tracking
Some more Interesting Applications

• Environmental
monitoring
– CENS-UCLA
• 50 node seismic
monitoring set up
• Terrestrial monitoring:
based on observing the
biological and chemical
cycles of nature.
• Aquatic monitoring:
Monitoring of streams
and river
Some more Interesting Applications

• Habitat Monitoring: • ExScal: Extreme Scale

– David Culler and his
team at UC Berkeley
have deployed since
2002 a network of more
than 20 motes on the
Great Duck Island2 to
monitor the island’s
habitat and the breeding
habits of Leach Storm
Petrels
– UC Berkeley project on
monitoring redwood
trees
Wireless Sensor
Networking (Anish Arora
at Ohio State Univ):
– demonstration covered an
area 1.3km by 300m with
about 1000 sensor nodes
and around 200 backbone
nodes
– One possible application:
detection & classification of
multiple intruder types over
an extended perimeter.
Some more Interesting Applications
• Precision Agriculture
– Camalie Net    
• Wireless Sensor
Network at Camalie
Vineyards - Mt.
Veeder, Napa Valley,
California
– Accenture in
collaboration with Intel
has a WSN at Pickberry
Vineyard in Northern
California
– SPANN Lab., IIT-B at
Sula Wines
• WSN for small agriculture
farms – CEDT, IISc
Some more Interesting Applications
• Disaster Response
– CalIT2: Wireless Internet
Information System for
Medical Response in
Disasters (WIISARD)
project is investigating
the best way to triage
casualties and manage
care in chaotic situations
following disasters, such
as a biological attack, a
bridge collapse or an
earthquake

– SPANN-Lab. IITB: Early

Warning Systems for
Landslide Prediction
Introduction & History
WSN: Brief History
Information
Processing
Center

• Earliest: In 1994 DARPA

funded research on ‘Low Aggregator
Internet
Power Wireless Integrated Cloud
Micro sensor’

• In 2003, Technology Review

from MIT, listed WSN on the Base
top, among 10 emerging Sensor Nodes Station
technologies that would
impact our future
– WSN can be viewed as a
disruptive technology

• So far, a lot work has been

done in this area but still a
long way to go
– And the strategy workshop
is still very relevant A Typical Architecture
Sensor Network Architecture
WSN node components
• Low-power processor.
– Limited processing.
Sensors • Memory.
P
O – Limited storage.
Storage Processor W • Radio.
E – Low-power.
R
– Low data rate.
Radio – Limited range.
• Sensors.
WSN device schematics – Scalar sensors:
temperature, light, etc.
– Cameras, microphones.
• Power.
WSN Nodes
•Sensor nodes have local processing capability

• Sensor nodes can be randomly and rapidly deployed even in places inaccessible

for humans

•Sensor nodes can self organize to communicate

• Sensor nodes can collaboratively work

•A sensor node might vary in size from that of a shoebox down to the size of a

grain of dust

•The cost of sensor nodes is variable, ranging from hundreds of dollars to a few

pennies, depending on the size of the sensor network and the complexity required

of individual sensor nodes

•Size and cost constraints on sensor nodes result in corresponding constraints on

resources such as energy, memory, computational speed and bandwidth

Evolution of Sensor nodes
• Military Networks of Sensors
– Early 1950s, long-range acoustic sensors (hy-
drophones), called the Sound Surveillance
System (SOSUS),deployed in the deep basins of
Atlantic & Pacific oceans for submarine
surveillance
– Networks of air defense radars
• Warning and Control System (AWACS) planes for all-
weather surveillance, command, control, and
communications.
– Air Delivered Seismic Intrusion Detector (ADSID)
system, used by US Air Force in the Vietnam war.
Evolution of Sensor Networks(Cont.)
• Next generation Wireless sensor Nodes
– WINS from UCLA
• In 1996, the Low Power Wireless Integrated
Microsensors (LWIMs) were produced by UCLA and
the Rockwell Science Center.
• In 1998, the same team built a second generation
sensor node-the Wireless Integrated Network
Sensors (WINS)

The WINS processor board The WINS radio board

Evolution of Sensor Networks(Cont.)
– Motes from UC Berkeley
• In 1999, the Smart Dust project at UC Berkeley
released the first node, WeC
• WeC was built with a small 8-bit, 4 MHz Atmel mi-
crocontroller (512 bytes RAM and 8 KB ash
memory), which consumed 15 mW active power and
45 W sleeping power
• WeC also had a simple radio supporting a data rate
up to 10 Kbps, with 36 mW transmitting power and 9
mW receiving power.
• Later on, Rene and Dot were built in 1999 and2000,
respectively, with upgraded microcontrollers.
• Mica family was released in 2001, including Mica ,
Mica2, Mica2Dot, and MicaZ
Evolution of Sensor Networks(Cont.)

(b) Mica family

(a) WeC

(c) Telos (d) Spec prototype

Motes from UC Berkeley
Evolution of Sensor Networks(Cont.)
– Medusa from UCLA
• Medusa MK-2 sensor node was developed by the Center for
Embedded Networked Sensing (CENS) at UCLA in 2002
• Medusa MK-2 integrates two microcontrollers:
– ATmega128, is dedicated to less computationally demanding tasks, including
radio base band processing and sensor sampling.
– AT91FR4081, is a more powerful microcontroller (40 MHz, 1 MB flash, 136
KB RAM) to handle more sophisticated, but less frequent signal processing
tasks (e.g., the Kalmanlter).
– The combination of these two microcontrollers provides more flexibility in
WSN development and deployment, for applications that require both high
computation capabilities and long lifetime.

Medusa node from UCLA

Evolution of Sensor Networks(Cont.)
– PicoRadio from UC Berkeley
• In 2003, the Berkeley Wireless Research Center
(BWRC) presented the first radio transmitter,
PicoBeacon, purely powered by solar and vibrational
energy sources.
• BWRC also produced SoC based sensor nodes
instead of using COTS components
• In 2002, PicoNode II was built using two ASIC chips
that implemented the entire digital portion of the
protocol stack
– the chip set consumed an average of 13 mW when three
nodes were connected.
• PicoNode III integrate a complete PicoNode into a
single small aspect-ratio package.
Evolution of Sensor Networks(Cont.)
– AMPS from MIT

• AMPS I

• AMPS II- highly integrated sensor node comprised of a digital and
an analog/RF ASIC

• interesting feature of AMPS-II is that the node will be able to
operate in several modes-
– Either as a low-end stand-alone guarding node, a fully functional node for
middle-end sensor networks,
– or a companion component in a more powerful high-end sensor systems.
• it favors a network with heterogeneous sensor nodes for more
efficient utilization of resources.

 AMPS-I from MIT

Evolution of Sensor Networks(Cont.)
– Other commercial products and testbeds for
Sensor Networks
 Ember products
 Sensoria WINS
 Pluto mote
 PC104 testbed and
 Gnome testbed
Why Microscopic Sensor Nodes?
The transition from large to small scale sensor nodes has several
advantages.
(1) Small sensor nodes are easy to manufacture with much lower cost
than large scale sensors.
(2) With a mass volume of low cost and tiny sensor nodes, they can be
deployed very closely to the target phenomena or sensing field at an
extremely high density.
(3) Since computing and communication devices can be integrated with
sensors, large-sample in-network and intelligent information fusion
becomes feasible. The intelligence of sensor nodes and the
availability of multiple onboard sensors also enhances the flexibility of
the entire system.
(4) Due to their small size and self-contained power supply, sensor nodes
can be easily deployed into regions where replenishing energy is not
available, including hostile or dangerous environments. The
survivability of nodes also increases with reduced size.
(5) The high node density enables system-level fault tolerance through
node redundancy.
Mobile Sensor Networks
Definition
• A mobile wireless sensor network owes its name to the presence
of mobile sink or sensor nodes within the network.

• A mobile sensor network is composed of a distributed collection of

nodes, each of which has sensing, computation, communication
and locomotion capabilities

• The mobile sensor node is in fact an enhanced sensor node. It not

only has all the capabilities of the static sensor node, but also
realizes mobility by adding a robotic base and a driver board.

• Networks are capable of self-deployment; i.e., starting from some

compact initial configuration, the nodes in the network can spread
out such that the area ‘covered’ by the network is maximized.
Sensors Vs. Mobile Sensors
• Mobile sensor networks have more powerful network
capabilities such as self-deployment, network repair and
event tracking.

• In Static Sensor Network, the sensor nodes localize only first

time during deployment. In case of Mobile Sensor Network,
nodes collect the data by moving from one place to another
place hence localization is needed.

• Mobile sensor networks are more energy efficient, better

targeting and provide more data fidelity than Static Sensor
Network

• The advantages of mobile WSN over static WSN are better

energy efficiency, improved coverage, enhanced target
tracking and superior channel capacity
System Overview
• The complete system architecture of a mobile sensor
network includes a group of mobile sensor nodes, a base
station, upper communication network infrastructures and
clients

• A base station is used to bridge the sensor network to

another network or platform, such as Internet.

• A mobile sensor network is well suited for distributed

measurement and control applications.

• The sensor nodes are scattered in the target environment

and they form a multi-hop mesh networking architecture
Architecture
Its architecture can be divided into three layers:

Node layer-consists of all the sensor nodes that can be either

static or mobile. This layer is directly embedded into the
physical world to get all kinds of data.

Server layer-includes a personal computer or a single board

computer running server software.

Client layer-includes local clients and remote clients. The

devices of the client layer can be any smart terminals, such as
PCs, PDAs, Pocket PCs and smart phones.

• The server layer and the client layer communicate with each
other and they form a typical example of Internet.
Mobile Node Design
• Mobile sensor node is in fact a mobile robot that can
communicate with other nodes wirelessly in the multi-hop
sensor network

• Add various locomotion modules to the sensor nodes so

that they can move from place to place.

• Propose a wheel-based mobile node architecture that can

be regarded as a simple differential drive robot

• Wireless sensor node is a resource-constrained device.

• When we add mobility to it, we cannot expect it to be as

powerful as conventional mobile robots
Structure Decomposition

Exploded view of the proposed mobile node

structure
A prototype of the mobile sensor node
-The mobile node, which is
named as RacemoteZ

-Provides a novel robotic

platform for adding controlled
mobility to wireless sensor

-The size of RacemoteZ is

105 mm×90 mm×80 mm.

-Easy to assemble or
disassemble the node

-System up-gradation is
possible
Software Architecture of Mobile Node
The software environment for the sensor nodes is
TinyOS, an open-source operating system designed for
wireless embedded sensor networks

The embedded software modules of the mobile node.

MSNs Type 1: Robots with Sensors
Type 1: Successors of Stationary WSNs.
Artifacts created by the distributed robotics and low power
embedded systems areas.

LittleHelis SensorFlock (U
MilliBots (CMU) CotsBots (UC- of Colorado
Berkeley) (USC)
Boulder)

Characteristics
• Small-sized, wireless-capable, energy-sensitive, as their stationary
counterparts.
• Feature explicit (e.g., motor) or implicit (sea/air current)
mechanisms that enable movement.
MSN Type 1: Examples
Example: Chemical Dispersion Sampling
Identify the existence of toxic plumes.
Micro Air Vehicles (UAV –
Ground Station Unmanned Aerial Vehicles)

SensorFlock: An Airborne Wireless Sensor Network of Micro-Air Vehicles

 MSN Type 1: Examples
SenseSwarm: A new framework where data acquisition is
scheduled at perimeter sensors and storage at core
nodes.
• PA Algorithm for finding the perimeter
• DRA/HDRA Data Replication Algorithms
s6
s4
s5
s7

s2 s3
s8

s1
Perimeter-Based Data Replication and Aggregation in Mobile Sensor Networks
MSN Type 1: Advantages
Advantages of MSNs
• Controlled Mobility
– Can recover network connectivity.
– Can eliminate expensive overlay links.
• Focused Sampling
– Change sampling rate based on spatial
location (i.e., move closer to the physical
phenomenon).
MSN Type 2: Smartphones
• Type 2: Smart phones, the successors of our
dummy cell phones …
– Mobile:
• The owner of the smart-phone is moving!

– Sensor:
• Proximity Sensor (turn off display when getting close to ear)
• Ambient Light Detector (Brighten display when in sunlight)
• Accelerometer (identify rotation and digital compass)
• Camera, Microphone, Geo-location based on GPS, WIFI, Cellular
Towers,…

– Network:
• Bluetooth: Peer-to-Peer applications / services
• WLAN, WCDMA/UMTS(3G) / HSPA(3.5G): broadband access.
MSN Type 2: Smart phones
• Type 2: Smart phones, the successors of our
dummy cell phones …
– Actuators: Notification Light, Speaker.
– Programming Capabilities on top of Linux
OSes: OHA’s Android (Google), Nokia’s
Maemo OS, Apple’s OSX, …
 MSN Type 2: Examples
Intelligent Transportation Systems with VTrack
• Better manage traffic by estimating roads taken by
users using WiFi beams (instead of GPS) .

Graphics courtesy of: A .Thiagarajan et. al. “Vtrack: Accurate, Energy-Aware Road Traffic Delay Estimation using
Mobile Phones, In Sensys’09, pages 85-98. ACM, (Best Paper) MIT’s CarTel Group
 MSN Type 2: Examples
BikeNet: Mobile Sensing for Cyclists.
• Real-time Social Networking of the cycling community
(e.g., find routes with low CO2 levels)

Left Graphic courtesy of: S. B. Eisenman et. al., "The BikeNet Mobile Sensing System for Cyclist Experience
Mapping", In Sensys'07 (Dartmouth’s MetroSense Group)
MSN Type 2: Examples
Mobile Sensor Network Platforms
• SensorPlanet*: Nokia’s mobile device-centric large-
scale Wireless Sensor Networks initiative.
• Underlying Idea:
– Participating universities (MIT’s CarTel, Dartmouth’s
MetroSense,etc) develop their applications and share the
collected data for research on data analysis and mining,
visualization, machine learning, etc.
– Manhattan Story Mashup**: An game where 150 players
on the Web interacted with 183 urban players in Manhattan
in an image shooting/annotation game
• First large-scale experiment on mobile sensing.
MSN Type 2: Examples
Other Types of MSNs?
• Body Sensor Networks (e.g., Nike+): Sensor in shoes
communicates with I-phone/I-pod to transmit the distance
travelled, pace, or calories burned by the individual wearing
the shoes.
• Vehicular (Sensor) Networks (VANETs): Vehicles communicate
via Inter-Vehicle and Vehicle-to-Roadside enabling Intelligent
Transportation systems (traffic, etc.)
Design Challenges
Why are Sensor Networks
challenging/unique from a research point of
view?

• Typically, severely energy constrained.

– Limited energy sources (e.g., batteries).
– Trade-off between performance and lifetime.
• Self-organizing and self-healing.
– Remote deployments.
• Scalable.
– Arbitrarily large number of nodes.
Design Challenges (Cont.)
• Heterogeneity.
– Devices with varied capabilities.
– Different sensor modalities.
– Hierarchical deployments.
• Adaptability.
– Adjust to operating conditions and changes in
application requirements.
• Security and privacy.
– Potentially sensitive information.
– Hostile environments.
Technical Issues
Sensor Deployment
• Sensors positioned far from the phenomena

• Several sensors deployed near the phenomena and sending time

series to a central system
Deployment and Self-organization
• Most sensor nodes are deployed in regions which have no
infrastructure at all.
– A typical way of deployment in a forest would be tossing the
sensor nodes from an aero plane. In such a situation, it is up to
the nodes to identify its connectivity and distribution.
• Self organization of ad hoc networks includes both
communications self-organization and positioning self-
organization.
– The nodes must wake up, detect each other, and form a
communication network
Localization
In most of the cases, sensor nodes are deployed in an
ad hoc manner. It is up to the nodes to identify
themselves in some spatial co-ordinate system. This
problem is referred to as localization.
Sensor Network Technology
• Sensor nets often wireless towards sensors
-May use Wi-fi – 802.11
-Often use ZigBee – 802.15.4 (low-power)
-Other technology under development and use

• Sensor net gateways often use Web access

-Is good standard for heterogeneity

• Sensor net gateways may use different technologies

towards Internet
-Often wired – with normal technologies
-Often wireless – e.g. cellular or Wi-fi
Sensor Network Topology
Software Issues
Operating System
• Typically less complex than the general purpose
operating systems, because
– special requirements of sensor network applications
– resource constraints in sensor network hardware platforms
• Embedded operating systems such as eCos or uC/OS
for sensor networks can be used
̶ Wireless sensor network hardware is not different from
traditional embedded systems
• Embedded operating systems are often designed with
real-time properties
• Operating systems specifically for sensor networks do
not have real-time support
Operating System(Cont.)
• TinyOS is perhaps the first operating system
specifically designed for wireless sensor networks
• TinyOS is based on an event-driven programming
model instead of multithreading
• TinyOS programs are composed into event
handlers and tasks with run to completion-
semantics
• Programs written for TinyOS are written in a
special programming language called nesC
– extension to the C programming language
– NesC is designed to detect race conditions between
tasks and event handlers.
Operating Systems(Cont.)
• There are also operating systems that
allow programming in C.
– Examples of such operating systems include
Contiki, MANTIS, BTnut, Nano-RK and SOS
– LiteOS is a newly developed OS for wireless
sensor networks, which provides UNIX like
abstraction and support for C programming
language
– ERIKA Enterprise is one of the newcomers as
operating systems for sensor networks.
Software
What is the role of software in sensor
networks?
 Energy is the scarcest resource of WSN
nodes, and it determines the lifetime of
WSNs
 WSNs are meant to be deployed in large
numbers in various environments, including
remote and hostile regions
 Ad-hoc communications as key
Software(Cont.)
Algorithms and protocols need to address the following
issues:
• Lifetime maximization
• Robustness and fault tolerance
• Self-configuration

Some of the "hot" topics in WSN software research are:

• Security
• Mobility (when sensor nodes or base stations are moving)
• Middleware: the design of middle-level primitives between
the software and the hardware
Algorithms And Protocols
• An algorithm for a Sensor Network is
implicitly a distributed algorithm.
• Algorithmic research in Sensor Networks
mostly focuses on
– Energy Efficiency
– Localization & Time Synchronization
– Routing
 MAC for Energy Efficiency
• Medium Access Control (MAC) protocols designed
for ad hoc networks
– primarily focused on optimizing fairness and throughput
efficiency, with less emphasis on energy conservation
• MACs for sensor network are enhanced
• Protocols such as MACAW and IEEE 802.11
eliminate the energy waste caused by colliding
packets in wireless networks
• MAC protocols for sensor networks is to reduce this
idle power
• consumption by setting the sensor radios into a sleep
state
MAC protocols
• Sensor MAC(S-MAC)
– First MAC for Sensor Networks
– nodes create a sleep schedule for themselves that
determines at what times to activate their receivers
and when to set themselves into a sleep mode.
• Timeout-MAC (T-MAC)
– Solution for limitations of the original S-MAC
protocol
– T-MAC to eliminate idle energy further by
adaptively setting the length of the active portion of
the frames
MAC protocols
• DMAC
– By staggering the wakeup times, DMAC
reduces the large delays observed in packets
that are forwarded for more than a few hops
• TRaffic-Adaptive Medium Access
(TRAMA)
– TRAMA attempts to reduce wasted energy
consumption caused by packet collisions
Localization
• The procedure through which the nodes obtain
their positions is called localization
• In localization, the nodes in a sensor network
can be categorized into two types-
– Beacon nodes which are aware of their positions
– sensor nodes which need to determine their
positions using a localization algorithm.
• Straightforward method for localization in WSNs
– GPS: attach GPS receiver on every sensor node.
– Infeasible: large scale networks; high cost or
inconvenience
Localization(Cont.)
Localization algorithms can be roughly classified
into two categories(Depending on whether absolute range measurements
(point-to-point distances, angles, etc.) are used or not)

range based and

range-free.
• Range-based algorithms usually need some special
hardware to obtain accurate absolute range
measurements
– can achieve higher localization accuracy than range-free
algorithms.
• Range-free algorithms do not need special hardware
and are low costly
– more attractive in recent years.
Localization Algorithms for MSNs
• All are based on the Sequential Monte
Carlo (SMC) method
– SMC method provides simple simulation-based
approaches to estimating the distribution
• Weighted Monte Carlo Localization (WMCL)
• Energy efficient algorithm
• …….
Time Synchronization
To enable applications such as target
tracking, sensor networks require time
synchronization
 Romer’s Algorithm
 Reference-Broadcast Synchronization
(RBS)
Routing protocols
• It is a great challenge for routing in a WSN, because
– since it is not easy to grasp the whole network topology, it
is hard to find a routing path
– sensor nodes are tightly constrained in terms of energy,
processing, and storage capacities. Thus, they require
effective resource management policies to increase the
overall lifetime of sensor networks

Routing Protocols for WSN

 Network Structure Based Protocols
 Protocol Operation Based Protocols
Routing Protocols(cont.)
1.Network Structure Based protocols
• Depend on the system
architecture of the network.
•These protocols are classified again
into three categories:
–Data centric or flat routing protocols,
–Hierarchical routing protocols, and
–Location based routing protocols.
Routing protocols(Cont.)
2.Protocol operation based protocols
These are classified into five categories:
– Negotiation based routing protocol
– Multi-path based routing protocol
– Query-based routing protocol
– QoS-based routing protocol and
– Coherent-based routing protocol
Factors influencing sensor
network design
Factors influencing sensor network
design
• Fault Tolerance
• Scalability
• Hardware Constrains
• Sensor Network Topology
• Environment
• Transmission Media
• Power Consumption
Factors influencing sensor network
design

Fault tolerance
• Fault tolerance is the ability to sustain sensor
network functionalities without any
interruption due to sensor node failures.
• The fault tolerance level depends on the
application of the sensor networks.
Factors influencing sensor
network design

Scalability
• Scalability measures the density of the
sensor nodes.
• Density =(R) =(N R2)/A
R – Radio Transmission Range
Factors influencing sensor network
design

Production costs
• The cost of a single node is very important to
justify the overall cost of the networks.
• The cost of a sensor node is a very
challenging issue given the amount of
functionalities with a price of much less than
a dollar.
Factors influencing sensor network
design
Hardware constraints
Factors influencing sensor network
design

Sensor network topology

• Pre-deployment and deployment phase
• Post-deployment phase
• Re-deployment of additional nodes phase
Factors influencing sensor network
design
Environment
• Busy intersections
• Interior of a large machinery
• Bottom of an ocean
• Surface of an ocean during a tornado
• Biologically or chemically contaminated field
• Battlefield beyond the enemy lines
• Home or a large building
• Large warehouse
• Animals
• Fast moving vehicles
• Drain or river moving with current.
Factors influencing sensor network
design
Transmission media
In a multi-hop sensor network,
communicating nodes are linked by a
wireless medium. To enable global operation,
the chosen transmission medium must be
available worldwide.
• Radio
• infrared
• optical media
Factors influencing sensor network
design

Power Consumption
• Sensing
• Communication
• Data processing
Communication Architecture
Communication architecture of sensor
networks

• Combine power and

routing awareness
• Integrates date with
networking protocols
• Communicates power
efficiently through the
wireless medium
• Promotes cooperative
efforts among sensor
nodes.
Sensor Network Protocol stack
Communication architecture of sensor
networks

Physical layer:
Address the needs of simple but robust
modulation, transmission, and receiving
techniques.
• frequency selection
• carrier frequency generation
• signal detection and propagation
• signal modulation and data encryption.
Communication architecture of sensor
networks

• Propagation Effects
Minimum output power
(dn 2=<n<4)
Ground reflect – Multihop in dense
sensor net work
• Power Efficiency Modulation Scheme
M-ary Modulation scheme
Ultra wideband(impulse radio)
Communication architecture of sensor
networks

Open research issues

• Modulation schemes
• Strategies to overcome signal propagation
effects
• Hardware design: transceiver
Communication architecture of sensor
networks

Data link layer:

The data link layer is responsible for the
multiplexing of data stream, data frame detection,
the medium access and error control.
• Medium Access Control
• Power Saving Modes of Operation
• Error Control
Communication architecture of sensor
networks

Medium access control

• Creation of the network infrastructure
• Fairly and efficiently share communication
resources between sensor nodes
• Existing MAC protocols (Cellular System,
Bluetooth and mobile ad hoc network)
Communication architecture of sensor
networks
MAC for Sensor Networks
• Self-organizing medium access control for sensor networks
and Eaves-drop-and-register Algorithm
• CSMA-Based Medium Access
• Hybrid TDMA/FDMA-Based
Communication architecture of sensor
networks

Power Saving Modes of Operation

• Sensor nodes communicate using short data
packets
• The shorter the packets, the more dominance
of startup energy
• Operation in a power saving mode is energy
efficient only if the time spent in that mode is
greater than a certain threshold.
Communication architecture of sensor
networks

Error Control
• Error control modes in Communication Networks
(additional retransmission energy cost)
Forward Error Correction (FEC)
Automatic repeat request (ARQ)
• Simple error control codes with low-complexity encoding
and decoding might present the best solutions for sensor
networks.
Communication architecture of sensor
networks
Open research issues
• MAC for mobile sensor networks
• Determination of lower bounds on the
energy required for sensor network self-
organization
• Error control coding schemes.
• Power saving modes of operation
Communication architecture of sensor
networks
Network layer:
• Power efficiency is always an important
consideration.
• Sensor networks are mostly data centric.
• Data aggregation is useful only when it does not
hinder the collaborative effort of the sensor nodes.
• An ideal sensor network has attribute-based
addressing and location awareness.
Communication architecture of sensor
networks

Energy Efficient Routes

•Maximum available power (PA) route:

Route 2
•Minimum energy (ME) route: Route 1
•Minimum hop (MH) route: Route 3
•Maximum minimum PA node route:
Route 3
•Minimum longest edge route: Route 1
Communication architecture of sensor
networks

Interest Dissemination
• Sinks broadcast the interest
• Sensor nodes broadcast the advertisements
• Attribute-based naming
“The areas where the temperature is over 70oF ”
“The temperature read by a certain node ”
Communication architecture of sensor
networks

Data aggregation
 Solve implosion and overlap
Problem
 Aggregation based on same
attribute of phenomenon
 Specifics (the locations of
reporting sensor nodes) should
not be left out
Communication architecture of sensor
networks
Several Network Layer Schemes for Sensor
Networks
Communication architecture of sensor
networks

Open research issues

• New protocols need to be developed to address
higher topology changes and higher scalability.
• New internetworking schemes should be developed
to allow easy communication between the sensor
networks and external networks.
Communication architecture of sensor
networks

Transport layer:
• This layer is especially needed when the system is
planned to be accessed through Internet or other
external networks.
• TCP/UDP type protocols meet most requirements
(not based on global addressing).
• Little attempt thus far to propose a scheme or to
discuss the issues related to the transport layer of a
sensor network in literature.
Communication architecture of sensor
networks
Open research issues
• Because acknowledgments are too costly,
new schemes that split the end-to-end
communication probably at the sinks may
be needed.
Communication architecture of sensor
networks

Application layer:
Management protocol makes the hardware and
software of the lower layers transparent to the
sensor network management applications.
• Sensor management protocol (SMP)
• Task assignment and data advertisement protocol
(TADAP)
• Sensor query and data dissemination protocol
(SQDDP)
Communication architecture of sensor
networks
Sensor management protocol (SMP)
• Introducing the rules related to data aggregation, attribute-based
naming, and clustering to the sensor nodes
• Exchanging data related to the location
• finding algorithms
• Time synchronization of the sensor nodes
• Moving sensor nodes
• Turning sensor nodes on and off
• Querying the sensor network configuration and the status of
nodes, and reconfiguring the sensor network
• Authentication, key distribution, and security in data
communications
Some Other Interesting
Applications
 MIT d'Arbeloff Lab – The ring
sensor
 Monitors the physiological status of
the wearer and transmits the
information to the medical
professional over the Internet
 Oak Ridge National Laboratory
 Nose-on-a-chip is a MEMS-based
sensor
 It can detect 400 species of gases
and transmit a signal indicating the
level to a central control station
 iButton

• A 16mm computer chip armored in a stainless

steel can
• Up-to-date information can travel with a
person or object
• Types of i-Button
– Memory Button
– Java Powered Cryptographic iButton
– Thermochron iButton
iButton Applications

• Caregivers Assistance
– Do not need to keep a bunch of keys. Only one
iButton will do the work
• Elder Assistance
– They do not need to enter all their personal
information again and again. Only one touch of
iButton is sufficient
– They can enter their ATM card information and
PIN with iButton
– Vending Machine Operation Assistance
iBadge - UCLA
• Investigate behavior of children/patient
• Features:
– Speech recording / replaying
– Position detection
– Direction detection / estimation(compass)
– Weather data: Temperature, Humidity,
Pressure, Light
iBadge - UCLA
Some Application work in India
• DRDO project on theoretical aspect, mote
development and deployment (IISc.)
• WSN for critical emergency applications (Amirta
Univ., IIT-Bombay, IIT-Delhi, IIT-Kgp)
• WSN for tracking and monitoring in underground
mines (Central Mining Research Institute)
• Underwater wireless sensor networks (NPOL)
• WSN for Agriculture (IISc, IIT-Bombay)
• Pollution monitoring (IIT-Delhi, IIM-Kolkata, IIT-
Kgp)
• WSN for Biomed (IIT-Bombay)
• Many IITs have WSN test beds
• Many other theoretical and application work in India
• The above list is by no means complete, it is only illustrative
Academic Research to Industry
• WSN is transiting from
active academic research
to industry.
• Start-up companies such
as:
– Crossbow Technologies
– Dust Networks
– Ember
– Millennial Net
– Tendril Networks
– Scalable Network
Technologies
– Airbee Wireless (India;
will be giving a demo)
– Virtualwire (Delhi, India)
• WSN can be a great
enabler for
– component
manufacturers
– system integrators
– software services
providers
– OEMS
– application developers
– and other end users.
gracias