Wireless Sensor Networks: Working and Application

Abstract

With advance of technology there is increase in demands of sophisticated and small sized modules which can be deployed in the difficult environment where physical human presence is not possible. These modules consist of sensory equipment, computation and communication units. These modules are called as nodes. Number of nodes can be connected in a network to have infrastructure which communicates with each other and data from all the nodes can be collected at some central station and then monitored for various applications. In such network wired connection can be very messy and tedious. Thus wireless connection is more suitable option. These networks are called as wireless sensor networks and can be used for observation purpose and to generate reaction in particular environment. These are very low cost systems for various applications like biomedical, automobile, building management, surveillance etc. These sensor networks are possible due to improvement in sensor technologies, material used and cost effective concepts which have further decreased the size of sensors and increased the accuracy of their measurement. As they are used in vast variety of applications, these networks vary in designs and implementations. There are different requirements depending upon the environment in which they are used. The emergence of IOT products has increased demand for such networks. Thus it is necessary to understand the intrinsic characteristics of wireless sensor networks and their nodes. In this paper we have given brief description of wireless sensor networks and their various applications. We will discuss different operating systems used for programming of wireless sensor networks and their nodes. We will conclude the paper with advantages and limitations of these networks.