Wireless Sensor Networks
I wont say that WSN is a new concept. It has been there for quite a while now.People talk about it,but still few seem to know what it actually is. It is something that is gonna hit the market very soon. Wireless sensor networks will be used in various applications like say recording the temperature in a lawn to military surveillence. there are quite a few companies working on the technology right now.there are companies which build the motes, such as crossbow or smartdust.we will discuss about this a bit later.right now we go in with this big question....
Why do we go wireless?
A question that can have many reasons and there can be many arguements agains it. U might ask me why do i go wireless when the wired sensored networks are working fine. For this i will ask you why do u want to use the remote for a TV when there is button fixed to the Tv itself or why do u use the cellular phone when the land line does the job? there are lots of reasons for using the wireless sensor networks. the first thing is the cost. setting up the wired sensor network is costlier. just imagine how much it costs to wire up. then think bout the mess that wires creates. how? Right now you are sitting in front of the PC (not for guys on lap tops). just see the back side of the CPU. doesnt it look messed up? Will it not be better if you could just remove the wires? Wont you appreciate a wireless system. another reason for using the wireless sensor network is when the area we want to sense keeps on changing. Say today i want to sense the northern side of a lawn and tomorrow i want to sense the southern side. It will be dumb if we used a wired architecture. i wont say that it wont be possible, but just think ytoday you set up the wired network in the north and tomorrow you do the same thingon the southern side. Wont it be better if you could just throw these sensors in the northern side today and the southern side tomorrow? We will talk a lot bout this, but lets start our discussion on wireless sensor networks.
Basic Idea of Wireless Sensor Networks
Before we go into the details of wireless sensor networks,lets get the basics right. the first thing to know is the motes.what exactly are these motes? Motes are small boards which contains a sensor, a processor, a transreceiver, a power unit. Imagine all these are fitted into a board which will be of the size of ur palm.Isnt it amazing?well these motes do exist and it is possible to program them so that they can do the required job.
These motes are programmed using nes c.These motess form a network which can communicate with each other so that they can transmit or receive data and process them intelligently.By intelligently i mean that they know what they have to do.They dont need any human intervension