Design Issues and Considerations for Coordination Mechanisms in Wireless Sensor and Actuator Networks

A wireless sensor and actuator network (WSAN) is commonly integrated by a large quantity of sensor nodes and a lower number of actuator nodes which communicate throughout the wireless medium providing distributed sensing and executing specific tasks according to the events monitored in a specific area of interest. The sensors are involved in monitoring the physical environment, while the actuators execute specific actions in response to the data provided by the sensors. In this way, sensors and actuators coordinate in an efficient way while trying to respond within the comply with the requirements of the application; to achieve this a coordination mechanism is implemented to allow the sensor and actuator nodes to make an optimum assignment of resources, while enabling a response with the lowest possible delay. This work presents the basic design considerations to take into account in the design of a coordination mechanism for WSANs; it also presents a brief comparative analysis among the most representative coordination mechanisms proposed in the area of WSANs.