Wireless Sensor Technology for Intelligent Data Sensing: Research Trends and Challenges

Abstract Wireless sensor technology has been recognized as one of the emerging technologies of this century widely used for intelligent data sensing. A wireless sensor network (WSN) is composed of several sensor nodes, where the main objective of a sensor node is to collect information from its surrounding environment and transmit it to one or more points of centralized control, called base stations or sinks, for further analysis and processing. Limitations in WSN exist due to the restriction in its resources. Several approaches exist to increase the efficiency in communication and data acquisition in WSN. In this chapter, we describe data aggregation methods to optimize the data collection process and the sensor nodes. Additionally, we explain some interesting routing protocols that optimize communication among nodes in a WSN. Finally, we describe some strategies that would be useful to incorporate for sensor node mobility.