INTRODUCTION TO

WIRELESS SENSOR
NETWORKS
01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08
Trends in Ad hoc Defining Differences Why WSN? Uses of Characters of Challenges
Computing networks WSN between ad WSN WSN and
hoc networks limitations
and WSNs

AGENDA
ITCE 419 – INTRODUCTION TO WIRELESS SENSOR NETWORKS 2
TRENDS IN COMPUTING
Moore’s Law
For a given area, number of transistors that can be placed on an integrated circuit
doubles almost every 2 years
General purpose computing systems
Desktops and laptops are getting smaller and more powerful
Explosion in number!
Embedded computing systems
Special purpose computing systems
Examples: Mobile phones, PDA, GPS navigator, digital cameras, game consoles,
digital music players, printers, car engine control systems, cruise control systems,
some home appliances etc.
Explosion in both types and numbers!

ITCE 419 – INTRODUCTION TO WIRELESS SENSOR NETWORKS 3

AD HOC NETWORKS
Ad hoc network is a network of connected mobile devices in certain
limited area that is setup for temporary use for certain tasks with no
need for infrastructure.
Used when there is urgency for quick communication or absence of
infrastructure.
Uses
 Military applications
 Collaborative and distributed computing
 Emergency operation
 Hybrid wireless sensor networks
 WSN

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DEFINITION

WSN: Large collection of small inexpensive wireless

individual nodes with sensing capabilities that operate with
limited resources, this collection of nodes spreads on a
sensing field and collaborates to gather information about
the phenomena and reports it to base stations
Sensing: techniques used to gather information about an
environment or an object.
Sensor: is the object that senses the environment or an
object

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COMPARISON BETWEEN
WIRELESS SENSOR AND
AD HOC NETWORKS
 Application specific (WSN) Density of deployment
 Size of nodes  Higher density of nodes
 Smaller devices
Information fusion
 Network Size and coverage Aggregation
 Larger area
 Higher number of nodes Traffic distribution
When to send packets
 Mobility of nodes
 Limited or immobile No human intervention
 Equipment
Self configurability
 Sensors and actuators
Network formation and maintaining
 Limited resources
 Power constraints Data centric

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WHY WSN ?
Large set of potential applications
Collecting variety types of data for variety uses and needs

Flexible and easy to be tailored for different applications

Nodes can be customized to suites each application or environment
application specific

Monitor different types of environments and attributes automatically

Nodes operate with no human intervention
Onboard processing
Nodes can be equipped with actuators that allow them to control
monitored systems.
AI

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WHY WSN ?

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WHY WSN ?
(CONT.)
Ease of deployment
Deployed in unreachable places
disaster locations.

Accurate reading with high dense networks

more Affordable
Hardware
Software
Implementation
Deployment
maintenance

Heterogenous

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USES OF WSN
Different fields
Military
Industrial Management
Home and automation
Health care
Environmental monitoring
Agriculture
And beyond

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CHARACTERS OF WSN
Type of service Lifetime
 Raw vs processed data  Want to prolong the lifetime
 When to report  Defined
 Scoping (specific location or attribute)  Fist death
 Network disconnect
Quality of Service (QoS)  Loss of certain percentage of nodes
 Usual with multimedia networks  Last death
 Bandwidth  Loss of coverage of a spot
 Delay
Densities
Fault Tolerance  Number of nodes per unit of area
 Reacting to loss of nodes or links
 Different densities
 Can the network survive?
 Redundancy helps
Programmability
Scalability
 Can cope with increase in size
Maintainability
 Adapt to changes in the environment
Deployment ITCE 419 – INTRODUCTION TO WIRELESS SENSOR NETWORKS 11
CHALLENGES AND
LIMITATIONS
Energy Security
 Limited resources  DoS
 Usually battery  Eavesdropping
 Difficult to replace  Access to network
Self-Management (decentralized)  Authentication and secrecy
 Form a network
Wireless limitations
 Adapt to failure
 Power consumption
Design Constraints  Range
 Cheaper
 Smaller
Other issues
 Network formation
 Additional equipment
 Software
 Routing
 Less power consumption  QoS

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RESOURCES

Introduction to Wireless and Mobile Systems, D. Agrawal & Q Zeng

Ad Hoc Wireless Networks: Architectures and Protocols, C. Murthy
and B. Manoj
Fundamentals of Wireless Sensor Networks: Theory and Practice, W.
Dargie and C. Poellabauer
Protocols and Architectures for Wireless Sensor Networks, H. Karl
and A. Willing
Comparative Analysis of Network Protocols for Wireless Sensor
Networks, M. Almeer
Previous ITCE 419 slides by Dr. Nedal Ababneh
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