Wireless Sensor Network (WSN)

A wireless sensor network (WSN) is a system designed to remotely monitor and control a specific phenomenon. It is an infrastructure-less wireless network that is deployed in a large number of wireless sensors.

Firstly, we use it to monitor the system, physical or environmental conditions.

Typically, a wireless sensor network contains hundreds of thousands of sensor nodes.

Moreover, the individual nodes in a wireless sensor network (WSN) are inherently resource constrained:

They have limited processing speed, storage capacity, and communication bandwidth.

In addition, we connect the base station to the WSN system via the Internet to share data.

Components of WSN

1.Sensors

Firstly, we use sensors in WSN to capture the environmental variables and which is used for data acquisition.

Secondly, it is capable of executing data processing, data gathering and communicating with additional associated nodes in the
network.

2. WLAN Access Point

It receives the data sent by the Radio nodes wirelessly, generally through the internet.

3. Relay node

It is a midway node. We use it to communicate with the adjacent node. Also, we use it to enhance the network reliability.

4. Radio Nodes

It receives the data produced by the Sensors. And then, sends it to the WLAN access point.

5. Actor node

It is a high end node. Further, used to perform and construct a decision depending upon the application requirements.

Applications of WSN

Internet of Things (IOT)
Landslide Detection
Industrial applications
Environmental monitoring
Medical applications like patient monitoring
Noise Level of the surrounding

Design issues of a wireless sensor network

The deployment of sensor networks poses many challenges as given below:

Fault Tolerance:

Sensor nodes frequently deployed in hazardous environments.

The protocol deployed in the sensor network should be able to detect this failure as soon as possible. And it should be strong enough to handle a relatively large number of failures while maintaining the overall functionality of the network.

In conclusion, different deployment environments require different fault tolerance.

Energy Consumption:

In WSN, power consumption is one of the main issues. To clarify, the energy consumption mainly depends on the sensor nodes’ operations.

So, energy consumption can be avoided at every layer by using efficient routing protocols.

Hardware Constraints:

At a minimum, each sensor node must have a sensing unit, processing unit, transmission unit, and power supply.

Thus, there must be a balance in additional efficiency against cost and low-energy requirements.

Clocks:

In WSN, clock synchronization is a serious service.

These clocks need to be synchronized in some applications such as monitoring and tracking.

Advantages of Wireless Sensor Network

Sensors can be positioned close to production fields.
Flexible if there is a casual situation when an additional workstation is necessary.
We can use multiple nodes to increase the number of sensors and controllers per unit area.
It avoids plenty of wiring.
Opened by using centralized monitoring.