Introduction to

Wireless Sensor Networks

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 Unit I : WSN
❑Introduction to computer and
wireless sensor networks
❑Motivation for a network of Wireless Sensor
nodes –
❑Sensing and sensors
❑Challenges and constraints
❑Node architecture
❑Sensing sub system
❑Processor sub system
❑Communication interfaces– prototypes
❑Application of Wireless sensors
❑WSN Tools- Overview and Limitations
❑Contiki –Introduction
❑Characteristics of Contiki WSN simulator.
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Agenda
Introduction
Differences with ad hoc networks
Applications
Characteristics
Challenges
Future
Motes
Hardware Setup Overview
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 Introduction
Wireless Sensor Networks are networks
that consists of sensors which are
distributed in an ad hoc manner.
These sensors work with each other to
sense some physical phenomenon and
then the information gathered is
processed to get relevant results.
Wireless sensor networks consists of
protocols and algorithms with
self-organizing capabilities.
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Example of WSN

5 Introduction to Wireless Sensor Networks

Ref:[Link]
 Comparison with ad hoc
networks
● Wireless sensor networks mainly use broadcast
communication while ad hoc networks use
point-to-point communication.
● Unlike ad hoc networks wireless sensor networks
are limited by sensors limited power, energy
and computational capability.
● Sensor nodes may not have global ID because
of the large amount of overhead and large
number of sensors.
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 Applications of Wireless
Sensor networks

The applications can be divided in three

categories:
1. Monitoring of objects.
2. Monitoring of an area.
3. Monitoring of both area and objects.
* Classification due to Culler, Estrin, Srivastava

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 Monitoring Area

Environmental and Habitat Monitoring

Precision Agriculture
Indoor Climate Control
Military Surveillance
Treaty Verification
Intelligent Alarms

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 Example: Precision
Agriculture
❑ Precision agriculture aims at
making cultural operations
more efficient, while reducing
environmental impact.
❑ The information collected
from sensors is used to
evaluate optimum sowing
density, estimate fertilizers
and other inputs needs, and to
more accurately predict crop
yields.
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 Monitoring Objects

Structural Monitoring
Eco-physiology
Condition-based Maintenance
Medical Diagnostics
Urban terrain mapping

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 Example: Condition-based
Maintenance

Intel fabrication plants

Sensors collect vibration data, monitor wear
and tear; report data in real-time
● Reduces need for a team of engineers;
cutting costs by several orders of magnitude

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 Monitoring Interactions between
Objects and Space

Wildlife Habitats
Disaster Management
Emergency Response
Ubiquitous Computing
Asset Tracking
Health Care
Manufacturing Process Flows

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Example: Habitat
Monitoring
The ZebraNet Project
Collar-mounted sensors monitor zebra
movement in Kenya

Source: Margaret Martonosi, Princeton University

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 Characteristics of Wireless
Sensor Networks
Wireless Sensor Networks mainly consists of
sensors. Sensors are -
● low power
● limited memory
● energy constrained due to their small size.

Wireless networks can also be deployed in extreme

environmental conditions and may be prone to
enemy attacks.
Although deployed in an ad hoc manner they need
to be self organized and self healing and can face
constant reconfiguration.

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 Design Challenges

Heterogeneity
The devices deployed maybe of various types
and need to collaborate with each other.
Distributed Processing
The algorithms need to be centralized as the
processing is carried out on different nodes.
Low Bandwidth Communication
The data should be transferred efficiently
between sensors

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 Continued..

Large Scale Coordination

● The sensors need to coordinate with each other to
produce required results.
Utilization of Sensors
● The sensors should be utilized in a ways that
produce the maximum performance and use less
energy.
Real Time Computation
● The computation should be done quickly as new
data is always being generated.

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 Operational Challenges of
Wireless Sensor Networks
Energy Efficiency
Limited storage and computation
Low bandwidth and high error rates
Errors are common
● Wireless communication
● Noisy measurements
● Node failure are expected
Scalability to a large number of sensor nodes
Survivability in harsh environments
Experiments are time- and space-intensive

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 Enabling Technologies
Embed numerous distributed Network devices to coordinate
devices to monitor and interact and perform higher-level tasks
with physical world
Embedded Networked
Control system w/
Small form factor Exploit
Untethered nodes collaborative
Sensing, action
Sensing
Tightly coupled to physical world

Exploit spatially and temporally dense, in situ, sensing and actuation

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Future of WSN
Smart Home / Smart Office
Sensors controlling
appliances and
electrical devices in
the house.
Better lighting and
heating in office
buildings.
The Pentagon building
has used sensors
extensively.
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 Biomedical / Medical
Health Monitors
● Glucose
● Heart rate
● Cancer detection
Chronic Diseases
● Artificial retina
● Cochlear implants
Hospital Sensors
● Monitor vital signs
● Record anomalies
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Military
Remote deployment of
sensors for tactical monitoring
of enemy troop movements.

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 Industrial & Commercial

Numerous industrial and commercial

applications:
● Agricultural Crop Conditions
● Inventory Tracking
● In-Process Parts Tracking
● Automated Problem Reporting
● RFID – Theft Deterrent and Customer Tracing
● Plant Equipment Maintenance Monitoring

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 Traffic Management &
Monitoring
Future cars could use
wireless sensors to:
● Handle Accidents
● Handle Thefts

✔Sensors embedded in
the roads to:
–Monitor traffic flows
–Provide real-time route
updates
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 What are motes?

Motes mainly consist of three parts:-

Mote basically consists of a low cost and
power computer.
The computer monitors one or more sensors.
Sensors may be for temperature, light, sound,
position, acceleration, vibration, stress, weight,
pressure, humidity, etc.
The computer connects to the outside world
with a radio link.

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 Mica 2 Motes
These motes sold by Crossbow were
originally developed at the University
of California Berkeley.
The MICA2 motes are based on the
ATmega128L AVR microprocessor.
The motes run using TinyOS as the
operating system. MICA 2 MOTE

Mica2 mote is one of the most popular Ref:[Link]

and commercially available sensors t_pdf_files/Wireless_pdf/MICA2_Datasheet
which are marketed by CrossBow .pdf
technologies.

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 Telosb Motes

Telosb motes have USB programming capability

An IEEE 802.15.4 compliant, high data rate radio
with integrated antenna, a low-power MCU
There are also equipped with extended memory
and an optional sensor suite

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 TELOSB MOTE

Ref:[Link]

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One Example Sensor Board -
MTS310

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One More Example of Sensor Board -
MTS400/420
Besides the functions of MTS 300, it mainly adds
GPS functionality

Further Reading
● [Link]
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Hardware Setup Overview

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Programming Board (MIB520)

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 One Proposed WSN Functional
Layer Decomposition

Ref: Fig. 1.1 of J. Polastre Dissertation

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 Architecture to Build WSN
Applications

Ref: Fig. 2.1 of J. Polastre Dissertation

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 References
1. Eschenauer, L., and V. Gligor, “A Key-Management Scheme for Distributed Sensor
Networks,” Proceedings of ACM Conference on Computer and Communications Security
(ACM CCS), Washington DC, pp. 41-47, 2002
2. [Link]
3. [Link]
4. [Link]
5. [Link]
6. [Link]
7. [Link]
8. [Link]/~jie/teaching/fall_2004_files/[Link]
9. [Link]
10. [Link]
11. [Link]
12. [Link]/~maspohn/katia/[Link]
13. [Link]

34 Introduction to Wireless Sensor Networks