Applications & multiple research areas for wireless sensor networks

Wireless sensor networks (WSN) are currently receiving significant attention due to their unlimited potential. However, it is still very early in the lifetime of such systems and many research challenges exist. In this brief article, I concentrate on six key research challenges for wireless sensor networks. I conclude with a brief mention of a number of other research challenges that must be met before WSN become pervasive. Wireless networks allow a more flexible communication model than traditional networks since the user is not limited to a fixed physical location. Unlike cellular wireless networks, ad hoc wireless networks do not have any fixed communication infrastructure. In ad hoc networks, routes are mostly multihop and network hosts communicate via packet radios. Each host moves in an arbitrary manner and thus routes are subject to frequent disconnections. In typical mobile networks, nodes exhibit some degree of regularity in the mobility pattern.