Evolution and Applications of Wireless Sensor Networks

Summary form only given. Advances in low cost wireless and processing hardware have stimulated a range of wireless sensor networks (WSNs) research and their subsequent deployment in a number of applications. Since cost is an essential factor in any development, their designs are driven according to issues such as restricted memory size, limited computation power and low power consumption. However advanced applications such as those demanded by the medical/health care, military and surveillance sectors require higher levels of network performance supporting time sensitive, guaranteed and secure high quality data delivery. These demanding applications drive the need to enhance first generation WSN concepts.