Wireless Sensor Networks

Wireless sensors are tiny, low-cost, low-power, multifunctional sensor nodes with the capability of sensing certain physical properties, data processing, and communication in short distances. A large amount of such sensor nodes organise themselves in a highly dynamic manner to carry out a coordinated sensing task which covers a very large area such as a mining field or a battle zone. Unlike traditional networks, establishing wireless sensor networks impose specific challenges owing to the fact that the sensors are resource constrained and, by and large, unattended. This lecture will focus on proposed self-organising algorithms, medium access control and routing algorithms, query and localisation techniques, and data storage mechanisms.