Introduction to

Wireless Sensor
Networks (WSNs)
Mohammad Hossein Yaghmaee
Associate Professor
Department of Computer Engineering
Ferdowsi University of Mashhad (FUM)
What is WSN?
 Wireless
Sensor
Network
Wireless Network
Technology

Computational
Power WSN

Sensor
Technology
Network
 In general, the term network can refer to any interconnected group or
system.
 A network is any method of sharing information between two systems.
Deployment Challenges - Network

 How scalable is the network?

 How fault tolerant is the network?
 How is the network affected by node failure?
 What is the network latency?
 What is the packet loss behavior?
Wireless
 The term wireless is normally
used to refer to any type of
electrical operation which is
accomplished without the
use of a "hard wired"
connection.
 Wireless communication is
the transfer of information
over a distance without the
use of electrical conductors
Deployment Challenges - Wireless
 Transmission Medium
 Vegetation vs desert
 High vs low humidity etc
 Coverage
 What is the range of the mote?
 Break vs Re-associate distance
 Connectivity
 How stable is the connection?
 How is it affected by the change in battery voltage?
 Power consumption
 How much power does the radio use?
 What happens when the voltage drops?
Wireless Revolution
Size reduction of cellular telephones
Wireless Networking
Threats

 Disclosure of sensitive/confidential data

 Denial of Service (DoS)
 Unauthorized access to wireless-enabled resources
 Potential weakening of existing security measures
on connected wired networks and systems
Infrastructure-based Wireless
Networks
 Typical wireless network: Based on infrastructure
 E.g., GSM, UMTS, …
 Base stations connected to a wired backbone network
 Mobile entities communicate wirelessly to these base stations
 Traffic between different mobile entities is relayed by base stations and
wired backbone
 Mobility is supported by switching from one base station to another
 Backbone infrastructure required for administrative tasks

Gateways IP backbone

Server
Router
Infrastructure-based Wireless
Networks – Limits?
 What if …
 No infrastructure is available?
 E.g., in disaster areas, under-developed countries
 It is too expensive/inconvenient to set up?
 E.g., in remote, large construction sites
 There is no time to set it up?
 E.g. in military operations
Solution: (Wireless) Ad hoc
Networks
 Try to construct a network without infrastructure, using
networking abilities of the participants
 This is an ad hoc network – a network constructed
“for a special purpose”
 Simplest example: Laptops in a conference room –
a single-hop ad hoc network
 Possible Applications for Infrastructure-
free Networks
 Factory floor  Disaster recovery  Car-to-car
automation communication

 Military networking
 Search-and-rescue
 Personal area networking (watch, glasses, PDA, medical appliance,
…)
 …
Problems & Challenges for Ad
hoc Networks
 Without a central infrastructure, things
become much more difficult
 Problems are due to
 Lack of central entity for organization
available
 Limited range of wireless communication
 Mobility of participants
 Battery-operated entities
No Central Entity
! Self-Organization
 self-organization
 Without a central entity (like a base station),
participants must organize themselves into a
network.
 Pertains to (among others):
 Medium access control
 no base station can assign transmission
resources, must be decided in a distributed fashion
 Finding a route from one participant to
another
Limited Range
! Multi-Hopping
 For many scenarios, communication with
peers outside immediate communication
range is required
 Direct communication limited because of
distance, obstacles, …
 Solution: multi-hop network

?
Mobility  Suitable, Adaptive
Protocols
 In many ad hoc network applications, participants move around
 In cellular network: simply hand over to another base station

 In mobile ad hoc networks

(MANET):
 Mobility changes
neighborhood relationship
 Must be compensated
 Routes in the network have
to be changed
 Complicated by scale
 Large number of such
nodes difficult to support
Battery-Operated Devices 
Energy-Efficient Operation
 Often participants in an ad hoc network draw energy
from batteries
 Desirable: long run time for
 Individual devices
 Network as a whole
  Energy-efficient networking protocols
 E.g., use multi-hop routes with low energy
consumption (energy/bit)
 E.g., take available battery capacity of devices into
account
 How to resolve conflicts between different
optimizations?
Advantages
 Easy to Install:
 hard-to-networking environment: river,
highway, historic cites
 fast installation: festival, assembly, Q-&-A in
congress
 reliability: (wired cables might be cut, get
rusty, …)
 in a company: re-organization, change office,
etc.
 Features of Wireless
Communication
 One global bandwidth shared by all users
 Fortunately channels, such as (frequency, time-slot) pairs, can be reused
 Radio-based
 Low bandwidth
 High latency radio communication links
 Higher bit error rate (BER)
 Fading
 Short-term multipath fading (Rayleigh effect)
 Due to same signal taking different paths and arriving at the receiver
shifted in phase
 Long-term fading (radio shadow)
 Topology of the terrain (like mountains) can cause signal dropouts

 Solution: deploying multiple antenna sites

Sensor

 A SENSOR is a device which measures

a physical quantity and converts it into a
signal which can be read by an observer
or by an instrument.

 Technological progress allows more and

more sensors to be manufactured on a
microscopic scale as microsensors using
MEMS (Micro-Electro-Mechanical
Systems) technology.
Types of Sensor

 Thermal
 Electromagnetic
 Mechanical
 Chemical
 Optical radiation
 Ionizing radiation
 Acoustic
Types of Sensor-Actuator Hardware
Platforms
1. RFID equipped sensors
2. Smart-dust tags
 typically act as data-collectors or “trip-wires”
 limited processing and communications
3. Mote/Stargate-scale nodes
• more flexible processing and communications

4. More powerful gateway nodes, potentially using wall power

Deployment Challenges - Sensor

 What kind of sensor modality should be used? –

PIR, acoustic, magnetic, seismic…
 What is the range of the sensor?
 How reliable is the sensor?
 What is the resolution of the sensor?
 How much power does the sensor use?
 What is the cost of the sensor?
Wireless Sensor Networks
• Micro-sensors, on-board
processing, wireless interfaces
feasible at very small scale--
Sensing Computing can monitor phenomena “up
close”
Communication
• Enables spatially and
temporally dense
environmental monitoring
 Wireless sensor networks
 Participants in the previous examples were devices close to a
human user, interacting with humans

 Alternative concept:
Instead of focusing interaction on humans, focus on
interacting with environment
 Network is embedded in environment
 Nodes in the network are equipped with sensing and
actuation to measure/influence environment
 Nodes process information and communicate it wirelessly

! Wireless sensor networks (WSN)

 Or: Wireless sensor & actuator networks (WSAN)
What are Wireless Sensor Networks
(WSNs)?
 Networks of typically small, battery-powered,
wireless devices.
 On-board processing,
 Communication, and
Sensors P
 Sensing capabilities. O
W
Storage Processor E
R
Radio

WSN device schematics

WSN Node Components
 Low-power processor.
Sensors  Limited processing.
P
O  Memory.
W
Storage Processor  Limited storage.
E
R  Radio.
Radio  Low-power.
 Low data rate.
WSN device schematics
 Limited range.
 Sensors.
 Scalar sensors:
temperature, light, etc.
 Cameras, microphones.
 Power.
Block Diagram – Mote
Picture- Mote
WSN: “Motes”
Mote Evolution
How Did We Get Here?
 Advances wireless technology
 MEMS, VLSI
 Bandwidth explosion
 Changes in regulation
 Cultural changes
 Wireless devices are everywhere and people are receptive to
new applications
 The concept of networks are ingrained in culture
 Open source
 Computer Science
 Operating system theory, network theory
 Inexpensive compilers
Challenges
 Challenges
 Limited battery power
 Limited storage and computation
 Lower bandwidth and high error rates
 Scalability to 1000s of nodes
 Network Protocol Design Goals
 Operate in self-configured mode (no infrastructure
network support)
 Limit memory footprint of protocols
 Limit computation needs of protocols -> simple, yet
efficient protocols
 Conserve battery power in all ways possible
Typical Features of WSN
 A very large number of nodes, often in the
order of thousands
 Asymmetric flow of information, from the
observers or sensor nodes to a command
node
 Communications are triggered by queries
or events
 At each node there is a limited amount of
energy which in many applications is
impossible to replace or recharge
 Almost static topology
Typical Features of WSN (cont.)
 Low cost, size, and weight per node
 Prone to failures
 More use of broadcast communications
instead of point-to-point
 Nodes do not have a global ID such as an
IP number
 The security, both physical and at the
communication level, is more limited than
conventional wireless networks
Design Considerations
 Fault tolerance – The failure of nodes
should not severely degrade the overall
performance of the network
 Scalability – The mechanism employed
should be able to adapt to a wide range
of network sizes (number of nodes)
 Cost – The cost of a single node should
be kept very low
 Power consumption – Should be kept to
a minimum to extend the useful life of
network
Design Considerations (cont.)
 Hardware and software constraints – Sensors,
location finding system, antenna, power
amplifier, modulation, coding, CPU, RAM,
operating system
 Topology maintenance – In particular to cope
with the expected high rate of node failure
 Deployment – Pre-deployment mechanisms
and plans for node replacement and/or
maintenance
 Transmission media – ISM bands, infrared, etc.
Design Considerations (cont.)
Environment
 Busy intersections
 Interior of a large machinery
 Bottom of an ocean
 Inside a twister
 Surface of an ocean during a tornado
 Biologically or chemically contaminated field
 Battlefield beyond the enemy lines
 Home or a large building
 Large warehouse
 Animals
 Fast moving vehicles
 Drain or river moving with current.
Some Problems
 Calibration = correcting systematic errors in sensor data
 Causes: manufacturing, environment, age, crud
 Localization = establish spatial coordinates for sensors
and target objects
 Power-aware Networking
 low-power media access; power-aware routing of data
packets
 Macro-programming= high-level program for a sensor
network; not low-level programs for individual sensors
WSN Communications Architecture
Sensing node
Sensor nodes can be
data originators and
data routers

Internet

Sink

Manager Node
Sensor nodes
Sensor field
Objective
Network Architectures
Layered Clustered
Architecture Architecture
Base
Base Statio
Statio n
n

Layer 1

Layer 2

Layer 3

Larger Nodes denote Cluster Heads

Clustered Network Architecture
 Sensor nodes autonomously form a group called clusters.
 The clustering process is applied recursively to form a hierarchy of
clusters.
Tier 2
Tier 1

Tier 1

Tier 0
Tier 0
LEACH (Low Energy Adaptive
Clustering Hierarchy)
 It uses two-tier hierarchy
Base Station
clustering architecture.
 It uses distributed algorithm to
(( ))
Cluster-head organize the sensor nodes into
(( )) clusters.
(( ) )
Cluster-head
(( ))
 The cluster-head nodes create
(( ) )
(( ) ) Cluster TDMA schedules.
 Nodes transmit data during their
Cluster-head
(( ) )
(( ) ) (( ) )
Cluster
assigned slots.
(( )) Cluster  The energy efficiency of the
Sensor LEACH is mainly due to data
fusion.
Sensor Network Protocol Stack
Power Management – How the
sensor uses its power, e.g.

Task Management
turns off its circuitry after
Mobility Management
receiving a message.
Application
Power Management

Transport Mobility Management – Detects

and registers the movements of
Network
the sensor nodes
Data Link
Physical Task Management – Balances
and schedules the sensing
tasks given to a specific region
Application Layer
 Makes the hardware and software of the lower
layers transparent to the sensor network
management applications.
 Different management protocols:
 Sensor Management Protocol (SMP)
 Task assignment and data advertisement protocol
(TADAP)
 Sensor Query and Data Dissemination Protocol
(SQDDP)
Transport Layer
 This layer is especially needed when the system
is planned to be accessed through Internet or
other external networks.
 End to end delivery
 Reliability
 Congestion control
Network Layer
 Power efficiency is always an important
consideration.
 Sensor networks are mostly data centric.
 Data aggregation is useful only when it
does not hinder the collaborative effort of
the sensor nodes.
 An ideal sensor network has attribute-
based addressing and location awareness.
Routing
Problem – How to efficiently route:
 Data from the sensors to the sink and,
 Queries and control packets from the sink to the sensor nodes
Routing
Phenomenon
being sensed

Data aggregation
takes place here

Sink

Multihop routing is common due to limited transmission range

 Low node mobility
 Power aware
Some routing issues in WSNs
 Irregular topology
 MAC aware
 Limited buffer space
Communication architecture of
sensor networks

•Maximum available power (PA) route: Route 2

•Minimum energy (ME) route: Route 1

•Minimum hop (MH) route: Route 3

•Maximum minimum PA node route: Route 3

•Minimum longest edge route: Route 1

Data Aggregation
Data coming from multiple sensor nodes are aggregated, if they have
about the same attributes of the phenomenon being sensed

Phenomenon being sensed

Data Link Layer (MAC Layer)

 The data link layer is responsible for :

 Medium access
 Creation of the network infrastructure

 Fairly and efficiently share communication resources

between sensor nodes
 Power saving modes of operation

 Error control.
 Forward Error Correction (FEC)

 Automatic Repeat Request (ARQ).

 Reliable point-to-point
 Point-to-multipoint connections
Physical Layer
 The physical layer is responsible for:
 Frequency selection
 Frequency generation
 Signal detection
 Modulation
 Data encryption
 Open research issues
 Modulation schemes
 Strategies to overcome signal propagation effects
 Hardware design
WSN: Open Source Tools
Simulators Programming Languages

 NS-2  Assembly
 C
 TOSSIM
 Giotto
 Avrora  Esterel
 NCTUns  Lustre
 OMNET++  Signal
 J-Sim  E-FRP
 nesC
 Ptolemy

Operating Systems Application Tools

 TinyOS  Localization Tools
 YATOS
 TinyDB
 Contiki
 MANTIS  Surge
 SOS  TOSBase
Application Spectrum
Interactive VR
Game

Wearable
Environmental Monitoring Computing Disaster Recovery

Earth Science &

Exploration
Context-Aware
Computing
Wireless Sensor
Transportation
Networks Biological
Monitoring
Hazard
Detection Smart
Environment
Medical
Military Surveillance Domain Urban Warfare
WSN application examples
 Disaster relief operations
 Drop sensor nodes from an aircraft over a
wildfire
 Each node measures temperature
 Derive a “temperature map”
 Biodiversity mapping
 Use sensor nodes to observe wildlife

 Intelligent buildings (or bridges)

 Reduce energy wastage by proper humidity,
ventilation, air conditioning (HVAC) control
 Needs measurements about room occupancy,
temperature, air flow, …
 Monitor mechanical stress after earthquakes
 WSN application scenarios
 Facility management
 Intrusion detection into industrial sites
 Control of leakages in chemical plants, …
 Machine surveillance and preventive maintenance
 Embed sensing/control functions into places no cable has
gone before
 E.g., tire pressure monitoring
 Precision agriculture
 Bring out fertilizer/pesticides/irrigation only where needed
 Medicine and health care
 Post-operative or intensive care
 Long-term surveillance of chronically ill patients or the
elderly
WSN application scenarios
 Logistics
 Equip goods (parcels, containers) with a sensor node
 Track their whereabouts – total asset management
 Note: passive readout might suffice – compare RF
IDs
 Telematics
 Provide better traffic control by obtaining finer-grained
information about traffic conditions
 Intelligent roadside
 Cars as the sensor nodes
Roles of participants in WSN
 Sources of data: Measure data, report them “somewhere”
 Typically equip with different kinds of actual sensors

 Sinks of data: Interested in receiving data from WSN

 May be part of the WSN or external entity, PDA, gateway,
…

 Actuators: Control some device based on data, usually also

a sink
Structuring WSN application types
 Interaction patterns between sources and sinks classify
application types
 Event detection: Nodes locally detect events (maybe
jointly with nearby neighbors), report these events to
interested sinks
 Event classification additional option

 Periodic measurement
 Function approximation: Use sensor network to
approximate a function of space and/or time (e.g.,
temperature map)
 Edge detection: Find edges (or other structures) in such a
function (e.g., where is the zero degree border line?)
 Tracking: Report (or at least, know) position of an
observed intruder (“pink elephant”)
Deployment options for WSN
 How are sensor nodes deployed in their environment?
 Dropped from aircraft ! Random deployment
 Usually uniform random distribution for nodes over finite area
is assumed
 Is that a likely proposition?

 Well planned, fixed ! Regular deployment

 E.g., in preventive maintenance or similar

 Not necessarily geometric structure, but that is often a

convenient assumption
 Mobile sensor nodes
 Can move to compensate for deployment shortcomings

 Can be passively moved around by some external force

(wind, water)
 Can actively seek out “interesting” areas
Maintenance options
 Feasible and/or practical to maintain sensor nodes?
 E.g., to replace batteries?
 Or: unattended operation?
 Impossible but not relevant? Mission lifetime might be
very small

 Energy supply?
 Limited from point of deployment?
 Some form of recharging, energy scavenging from
environment?
 E.g., solar cells
Characteristic requirements for WSNs
 Type of service of WSN
 Not simply moving bits like another network
 Rather: provide answers (not just numbers)
 Issues like geographic scoping are natural requirements, absent
from other networks
 Quality of service
 Traditional QoS metrics do not apply
 Still, service of WSN must be “good”: Right answers at the right
time
 Fault tolerance
 Be robust against node failure (running out of energy, physical
destruction, …)
 Lifetime
 The network should fulfill its task as long as possible – definition
depends on application
 Lifetime of individual nodes relatively unimportant
 But often treated equivalently
Characteristic requirements for
WSNs
 Scalability
 Support large number of nodes
 Wide range of densities
 Vast or small number of nodes per unit area, very
application-dependent
 Programmability
 Re-programming of nodes in the field might be necessary,
improve flexibility
 Maintainability
 WSN has to adapt to changes, self-monitoring, adapt
operation
 Incorporate possible additional resources, e.g., newly
deployed nodes
Required mechanisms to meet
requirements
 Multi-hop wireless communication
 Energy-efficient operation
 Both for communication and computation, sensing,
actuating
 Auto-configuration
 Manual configuration just not an option
 Collaboration & in-network processing
 Nodes in the network collaborate towards a joint goal
 Pre-processing data in network (as opposed to at the
edge) can greatly improve efficiency
Required mechanisms to meet
requirements
 Data centric networking
 Focusing network design on data, not on
node identifies (id-centric networking)
 To improve efficiency

 Locality
 Do things locally (on node or among nearby
neighbors) as far as possible
 Exploit tradeoffs
 E.g., between invested energy and accuracy
MANET vs. WSN
 Many commonalities: Self-organization, energy efficiency, (often) wireless
multi-hop
 Many differences
 Applications, equipment: MANETs more powerful (read: expensive)
equipment assumed, often “human in the loop”-type applications, higher
data rates, more resources
 Application-specific: WSNs depend much stronger on application
specifics; MANETs comparably uniform
 Environment interaction: core of WSN, absent in MANET
 Scale: WSN might be much larger (although contestable)
 Energy: WSN tighter requirements, maintenance issues
 Dependability/QoS: in WSN, individual node may be dispensable
(network matters), QoS different because of different applications
 Data centric vs. id-centric networking
 Mobility: different mobility patterns like (in WSN, sinks might be mobile,
usual nodes static)
Enabling technologies for WSN
 Cost reduction
 For wireless communication, simple
microcontroller, sensing, batteries
 Miniaturization
 Some applications demand small size
 “Smart dust” as the most extreme vision

 Energy scavenging
 Recharge batteries from ambient energy
(light, vibration, …)