Intelligent sensor networks in the military and civil sectors

Both military and civil life requires the automation of certain sensing and measuring activities and tasks. These measuring activities are such tasks whose execution is too complex, too time-consuming or too dangerous for humans. In civil life the intelligent sensor network technology is used for controlling the heating and electrical networks of buildings, and the management of production processes or production phases at a plant, while in the military sector they are used for military intelligence tasks in operation areas or within buildings. The various usages of such systems set up distinctive requirements against the structure and building blocks of such networks as well as against the connections realizing the network. The devices must sense and measure the different environmental and other features, the short-time storage of the measured data and their forwarding to the data-analyzing system. One of the fundamental application questions is which features can be sensed and measured by a device; furthermore, how accurately and fast these sensor networks can execute the tasks. Due to security and encryption reasons, primarily in military use, further significant questions are the communication protocols, like the energy support. In case of military intelligence tasks, the method of placement and location, as well as the related location of the devices are of special importance. As the first step in the research, by the review of the literature this paper intends to give answers to the raised questions by analysing the features of the devices available on the market, and introducing the most important existing systems.