Networking unattended wireless
sensors is expected to have significant impact on the efficiency of a large array of military and non-military applications. The main goal of wireless
Sensor networks is to obtain globally meaningful information from strictly local gleaned by individual sensor nodes. The Network
is deployed such that the sensors are embedded, possibly at random, in
a target environment. Utilizing the basic capabilities of sensors in
the network different types of monitoring and control applications that address the target environment
can be developed. Depending on the application at hand, the interface
between a sensor network and the outside world is provided by aircraft,
helicopters, ground-based vehicles, satellites, co-located sink-nodes,
among others. Wireless sensor networks are sufficiently different from
classical wired/wireless networks that a new set of protocols that take
into account the fundamental
limitations of sensors have to be developed. For example, in was
recently noted that the ultra-lightweight protocols imposed by the
stringent energy limitations may leave not much room for advanced
encryption schemes. Consequently, protection against overhearing in
military applications and privacy protection in personal systems needs
to be inherently built into the concepts from the beginning.
Reliability is expected to be a result of the large number of sensors
deployed for a specific task. However, this can only be obtained if
defective sensors can be excluded from the communication, and the
sensors are calibrated – either individually or collectively, either
before deployment or continuously in their environment. Since sensor
network research
is in its infancy, we are facing a unique challenge and opportunity:
that of developing fundamental research for this new type of networks
that promises to revolutionize the way we live and work.
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