REPORT Biswajit

WIRELESS SENSOR NETWORK
By
Biswajit Nayak
Regd. No-10IT61B06

School of Information Technology
Indian Institute Of Technology,Kharagpur.
Sept-2011

CERTIFICATE

This is to certify that the seminar entitled Wireless Sensor Networks submitted by
Biswajit Nayak( Regd.No-10IT61B06 ) ,towards the partial fulfillment of the requirement for the
degree of Master in Technology in Information and Communication Technology of Indian
Institute of Technology ,Kharagpur is the record of work carried out by him under my
supervision and guidance .In my opinion ,the submitted work has reached a level required for
being accepted for examination. The result embodied in this seminar, to the best of my
knowledge, havent been submitted to any other university or institution for award of any degree
or diploma.

Prof. Indranil Sen Gupta Prof. Partha Sarathi Day
Department of Computer Science & Engg. Department of Computer Science & Engg.
Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur. Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

It is matter of great pleasure for me to submit this seminar report on Wireless Sensor
Network, as a part of curriculum for award of Master in Technology with specialization in
Information and Communication Technology (ICT) degree of Indian Institute of Technology,
Kharagpur (IIT KGP).

I am thankful to my seminar guide Prof. Indranil Sen Gupta, Professor in Computer Sc. &
Engg and Prof. Partha Sarathi Day, Professor in Computer Sc. & Engg. Department for his
constant encouragement and able guidance.
I am also thankful to Prof. D Mukhopadhyay, Assistant Professor in Computer Science &
Engineering, Prof. P. P. Das, Professor, Professor in Computer Sc. & Engg & Prof. K. S. Rao
Assistant Professor, Information Technology, for their valuable support. My thanks are also due
to Prof. S Misra, Assistant Professor in Information Technology and Prof. R Mall, Professor
in Computer Science & Engineering, for their support and suggestions.

I take this opportunity to express my deep sense of gratitude towards those, who have helped us
in various ways, for preparing my seminar.

At the last but not least, I am thankful to my parent, who had encouraged & inspired me with
their blessings.

Biswajit Nayak
MTech (ICT)
Regd.No -10IT61B06

ABSTRACT

Wireless sensor networks are attracting increased interest for a wide collection of applications,
such as environmental monitoring, vehicle tracking, health monitoring etc. However, developing
sensor network application is notoriously difficult, due to extreme resource limitations of nodes,
the unreliability of radio communication, and the necessity of low power operation. Our goal is
to simplify application design by providing a set of development primitives for sensor networks
that abstract the details of low-level communication, data sharing ,and collective operations
.Through advanced different networking protocols, these devices form a sea of connectivity that
extends the reach of cyberspace out into the physical world. This report gives a brief description
of its architecture, routing protocol,standardization,different metrics to measure efficiency and its
important component like Microcontroller, Transceiver, External Memory; Power Source
(batteries).The unique characteristics include limited power usage, ability to with stand harsh
environmental conditions, ability to cope with node failures, dynamic network topology, etc. The
various factors influencing, sensor networks are also covered. This report also gives brief
description regarding security. The hardware design, software design and architecture forms an
essential part of the report.
Wireless Sensor Network Content
[BiswajitNayak,MTech(ICT),IITKgp][Regd.No10IT61B06] Page1
CONTENT

Page. No
1. Introduction 02
2. History of Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) 03
3. Characteristics 04
4. Hardware Component 05
5. Hardware Design 06
6. Software Component 08
7. Software Design 09
8. Wireless Sensor Network Architecture 10
8.1 Client 10
8.2 Server 10
8.3 Sensor MOTES 11
8.4 Networking Topologies 11
9. Routing Protocols in WSNs 12
10. Security in Wireless Sensor Network 16
10.1 Security Threats in WSN 16
10.2 Countermeasure 17
11. System Evaluation Metrics 17
12. Standardization 18
13. Wireless Sensor Network Applications 19
14. Pros and Cons of Wireless Sensor Network 20
15. Future Scope 20
16. Conclusion 21
17. Bibliography 22
Wireless Sensor Network Introduction


1. Introduction

A wireless sensor network (WSN) is a wireless network consisting of spatially dispersed and
dedicated autonomous devices that use sensors to monitor physical or environmental conditions.
A usual WSN system is formed by combining these autonomous devices, or nodes with routers
and a gateway[9][10].
The dispersed measurement nodes communicate wirelessly to a central gateway, which provides
a connection to the wired world where you can collect, process, analyze, and present your
measurement data. You can use routers to gain an additional communication link between end
nodes and the gateway for extend distance and reliability in a wireless sensor network, [10][11].
The wireless sensor is networked and scaleable, require very little power. It is also smart and
software programmable, and also capable of fast data acquisition, reliable and accurate over the
long term, but costs little to purchase and install, and requires nearly zero maintenance.

(Figure 1.1: Block diagram of Wireless Sensor Network)

Wireless Sensor Network is different from traditional network.

Wireless Sensor Network is a Single-purpose design means serving one specific
application where as traditional network general-purpose design means serving many
applications.
Energy is the main constraint in the design of all node and network components in
wireless sensor network where as in
traditional network typical primary design concerns are network performance and
latencies, energy is not a primary concern.
Sensor networks often operate in environments with harsh conditions where as in
traditional network devices and networks operate in controlled and mild environments.

Wireless Sensor Network History


In wireless sensor network physical access to sensor nodes is often difficult or even
impossible where as in traditional network maintenance and repair are common and
networks are typically easy to access
In wireless sensor network most decisions are made localized without the support of a
central manager where as Obtaining global network knowledge is typically feasible and
centralized management is possible

2. History

In the year of 1978, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) organized the
Distributed Sensor Nets Workshop (DAR 1978),focusing on sensor network research challenges
such as networking technologies, signal processing techniques, and distributed algorithms.That is
the reason that the military has been a driving force behind the development of wireless sensor
networks[8].
In the early 1980s DARPA also operated the Distributed Sensor Networks (DSN) program
which was then followed by the Sensor Information Technology (SensIT) program, which
provided the present sensor networks with new capabilities such as ad hoc networking, dynamic
querying and tasking, reprogramming and multitasking[2][8].
The University of California at Los Angeles along with the Rockwell Science Center proposed
the concept of Wireless Integrated Network Sensors or WINS . One outcome of the WINS
project was the Low Power Wireless Integrated Microsensor (LWIM), produced in 1996 (Bult et
al. 1996). This smart sensing system was based on a CMOS chip, integrating multiple sensors,
interface circuits, digital signal processing circuits, wireless radio, and microcontroller onto a
single chip.
In the year 1999 the University of California at Berkeley focused on the design of extremely
small sensor nodes called motes in the Smart Dust Project(Khan et al. 1999).The main aim of
this project was to demonstrate that a complete sensor system can be integrated into tiny devices,
possibly the size of a grain of sand or even a dust particle.
In the year 2000 the Berkeley Wireless Research Center (BWRC) focuses on the development of
low-power sensor devices in the PicoRadio project (Rabaey et al. 2000) , whose power
consumption is so small that they can power themselves from energy sources of the operating
environment, such as solar or vibrational energy.
The MIT AMPS (micro-Adaptive Multidomain Power-aware Sensors) project focuses on low-
power hardware and software components for sensor nodes, which includes the use of
microcontrollers capable of dynamic voltage scaling and techniques to restructure data
processing algorithms to reduce power requirements at the software level (Calhoun et al. 2005).
Due to these previous efforts are mostly determined by academic institutions, over the last
decade a number of profitable efforts have also appeared (many based on some of the academic
efforts described above), including companies such as Crossbow (www.xbow.com) ,Sensoria
(www.sensoria.com) , Worldsens (http://worldsens.citi.insa-lyon.fr) , Dust Networks
(http://www.dustnetworks.com) , and Ember Corporation (http://www.ember.com) .

Wireless Sensor Network Characteristics


Due to the profitable effort of these companies,they provide the opportunity to purchase sensor
devices ready for deployment in various different type of applications along with a variety of
management tools for programming,maintenance, and sensor data visualization[8].

3. Characteristics
The general structure of Wireless sensor network consists of a basestation or gateway which
can communicate with a number of wireless sensors via a radio link. Data is captured at the
wireless sensor node, then compressed, and transmitted to the gateway directly or, if required,
uses other wireless sensor nodes to forward data to the gateway. The transmitted data is then
passed to the system through the gateway connection.
Sensor nodes are likely as small computers, extremely basic in terms of their interfaces and their
components. They usually consist of a processing unit with limited computational power and
limited memory, sensors, a communication device, and a power source usually in the form of a
battery.
The base stations act as a gateway between sensor nodes and the end user and they normally
forward data from the WSN on to a server. Other special components are routers, designed to
compute, calculate and distribute the routing tables[10].
On the basis of functionality of sensor nodes and other element, the major characteristics of
WSN are as following :-
Power consumption constrains for nodes using batteries or energy harvesting
Ability to cope with node failures
Mobility of nodes
Dynamic network topology
Communication failures
Heterogeneity of nodes
Scalability to large scale of deployment
Ability to withstand harsh environmental conditions
Ease of use
Unattended operation.

4. Hardware Component
A Wireless Sensor Network(WSN) consists of spatially distributed sensor nodes and each sensor
node can perform some processing and sensing tasks independently. In addition, sensor nodes
communicate with each other in order to forward their sensed information to a central processing
unit or conduct some local coordination such as data fusion[1][2][5]. The sensor node consists of
several hardware components that include an embedded processor, a radio transceiver, internal
and external memories, and one or more sensors, a geopositioning system, a power source[2][1].

Wireless Sensor Network Hardware Component

( Fig 4.1 Architecture of Sensor Node)

4.1 Embedded Processor
The functionality of an embedded processor in a sensor node is to schedule tasks, process data
and control the functionality of other hardware components. There are several types of embedded
processors available that can be used in a sensor node include Microcontroller, Digital Signal
Processor (DSP), Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) and Application Specific Integrated
Circuit (ASIC). been the most used embedded processor for sensor nodes is the Microcontroller
because of its flexibility to connect to other devices and its cheap price[2]. For example, the most
recent CC2531 development board provided by Chipcon (acquired by Texas Instruments) uses
8051 microcontroller, and the Mica2 Mote platform provided by Crossbow uses ATMega128L
microcontroller.
4.2 Transceiver
The responsibility of a transceiver is for the wireless communication of a sensor node. There are
different types of wireless transmission media, which includes Radio Frequency (RF), Laser and
Infrared. The most used transmission media to fits to most of WSN applications is the RF based
communication. The different operational states of a transceiver are Transmit, Receive, Idle and
Sleep[2]. Mica2 Mote uses two kinds of RF radios one is RFM TR1000 and other one is
Chipcon CC1000. The Mica2 Motes outdoor transmission range of is about 150 meters.
4.3 Memory
Memories in the sensor nodes includes both program memory (from which instructions are
executed by the processor), and data memory (for storing raw and processed sensor
measurements and other local information). The quantities of memory and storage on board a
WSN device are often limited. It include in-chip flash memory and RAM of a microcontroller
and external flash memory. For example, the ATMega128L microcontroller running on Mica2
Mote has 128-Kbyte flash program memory and 4-Kbyte static RAM. Further, a 4-Mbit Atemel
AT45DB041B serial flash chip can provide external memories for Mica and Mica2Motes
(Hill,2003)[1][2].
4.4 Sensors
Due to limited bandwidth and power , Wireless Sensor Network devices primarily support only
low-data-rate sensing. There are various applications call for multi-modal sensing, as a result
each device may have several sensors on board. The specific sensors are used according to the
requirement of the application[1].For example, they may include temperature sensors, light
Wireless Sensor Network Hardware Design


sensors, humidity sensors, pressure sensors, accelerometers, magnetometers, chemical sensors,
acoustic sensors, or even low-resolution imagers.
4.5 Geopositioning system
It is important for all sensor measurements to be location stamped In numerous WSN
applications. To obtain positioning you need to pre-configure sensor locations at deployment, but
this may only be possible in limited deployments. Mainly for outdoor operations, when the
network is deployed in an ad hoc manner, such information is most easily obtained via satellite-
based GPS[1]. The Global Positioning System (GPS) is a space-based global navigation satellite
system (GNSS) which provides location and time information in all weather, anywhere on or
near the Earth, where there is an clear line of sight to four or more GPS satellites[10].
4.6 Power Source
In deployment of the WSN device is likely to be battery powered. power is consumed by
sensing, communication and data processing by a sensor node. . Batteries are the main source of
power supply for sensor nodes. For example, Mica2 Mote runs on 2 AA batteries. While some of
the nodes may be wired to a continuous power source in some applications, and energy
harvesting techniques may provide a degree of energy renewal in some cases, the finite battery
energy is probable to be the most critical resource bottleneck in most applications[1][2][12].

5. HARDWARE DESIGN
It is a critical process to select components for the sensor motes in the development of Wireless
Sensor Network.Low power and immense functionality are two highest priorities in evaluating
the strength of both the microcontroller and the sensor devices[12]. WISENET is introduced to
the new state-of-the-art Chipcon CC1010 microcontroller with integrated RF transceiver.
It had several features ,such as :-
Optimized 8051-core
Active (14.8 mA), Idle (2.9mA) and sleep (0.2mA) power modes
32 kB flash memory
kB+128 bytes SRAM
Three channel 10-bit ADC
Four timers / Two PWM's
Fully integrated UHF RF transceiver (433 MHz / 868 MHz nominal)
Programmable output power (-20 to 10 dBm)
Low current consumption (11.9 mA for RX, 17.0 mA for TX at
0dBm)
RSSI output that can be sampled by the on-chip ADC

Optimized 8051-core: The 8051 was designed from the perspective of what a microcontroller is
and what it has to do. It included in the basic design was 4K of Read Only Program Memory,
128 Bytes of Internal RAM, a USART and 32 I/O Pins[12]. The only major problem with the
8051 architecture is the twelve clock cycles per instruction cycle. This has made the 8051 appear
non-competitive to other microcontrollers which can have as few as one clock cycle per
instruction cycles. But most of the early embedded microcontrollers use processor architectures
that were taken from eight bit microprocessors.

WirelessSensorNetworkHardwareDesign
Active (14.8 mA), Idle (2.9mA) and sleep (0.2mA) power modes : For the proper working of
the microcontroller,it requires l4.8 mA to work in active mode,requires 2.9mA in the idle state
and requires 0.2mA in the sleep state[12].
32 kB flash memory : In case of flash memory, a section of memory cells can be erased or
written in a single operation or flash. Flash memory is a variation of EEPROM_(Electrically
Erasable Programmable Read-only Memory).Flash can function at higher effective speeds when
the systems using it read and write to different locations at the same time in a single operation
where as normal EEPROM only allows one location at a time to be erased or written. All types
of flash memory and EEPROM wear out after a certain number of erase operations. Flash
memory is made in two forms: NOR flash and NAND flash. This makes it suitable for storage of
program code that needs to be infrequently updated, as in digital cameras and PDAs. However its
I/O interface allows only sequential access to data. This makes it suitable for mass-storage
devices such as PC cards and various memory cards, and somewhat less useful for computer
memory.Flash memory is used in digital cellular phones, digital cameras, LAN switches, PC
Cards for notebook computers, digital set-up boxes, embedded controllers, and other devices
[12] [10].
2 kB+128 bytes SRAM : SRAM (static RAM) is random access memory that retains data bits in
its memory as long as power is being supplied. It provides faster access to data and is more
expensive than DRAM. SRAM is used as cache memory of computers and also as part of the
random access memory digital-to-analog converter on a video card. SRAM consumes more
energy to retain data over time, but does not require as much energy for the initial storage
operation. To achieve the smallest, lowest cost device, SRAM should be used only when
necessary[3][10][12].
Three channel 10-bit ADC : Four wire SPI interface is used in 10bit Analog to Digital
converter (ADC). The 8515 processor has SPI hardware support built in and this makes it fast
with minimum software overhead. 10 bits is a high resolution. To evade digital noise on the
analog signals, a separate +5V supply (78L05) is added to the ADC and the photodiodes used as
inputs. The ground for all of the above was tied into one point where the power came into the
regulator. Minimal usage of bypass capacitors on the ADC inputs we can obtain stable readings
Four timers / Two PWM's : There are two different versions of PWM.The original very
lightweight window manager, and the newer Ion-based PWM2. PWM was the first window
manager to implement "tabbed frames" or the back then unique feature allowing multiple client
windows to be attached to the same frame. This feature helps keeping windows, especially the
numerous xterms, organized. A look at the screenshots below might clarify the idea. Being a
lightweight window manager with emphasis on usability, PWM discards some features common
in window managers these days: only window shading in lieu of iconification is supported, there
are no close and other window buttons. PWM does have workspaces, menus and Window Maker
dockapp support.
Fully integrated UHF RF transceiver (433 MHz / 868 MHz nominal) : The wireless
transceiver contains at least two physical links, each with its own transmitter-receiver circuit in
addition to digital and analog signal processing circuits to communicate with other wireless units
using Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiplexing (OFDM) protocol. The design approaches
deal with the issues of noise interference between analog and digital subsystems, noise
interference between two links on the same chip, and high-frequency self-test, measurement of
funtional parameters (SNR, jitter, etc.), and interface between on-chip test facilities and external
low-cost testers.
Wireless Sensor Network Software Component


6. Software Components
The software component plays major role in the development of wireless sensor network. The
development of wireless sensor network composed of three custom software components ,such
as :-
The Web program
WiseDB
Tiny OS

6.1 The Web Program
Web program was written in PHP and make use of the Chart-Director charting software. The
web application queried MySQL database for the data, then we use a Chart-Director to generate
a graph of that data.
6.2 WiseDB
WiseDB is the custom software component that interfaced with the gateway via a serial link to
and with the SQL database via a TCP/IP link. WiseDB was written in C++and utilized two
open-source APIs (application programming interface).WiseDB collects the data captured by
sensor nodes of sensor mots network and passed through gateway and accessed by using SQL
server applications. This is the way that ,the WiseDB interacted with the rest of the system in the
wireless sensor network[12].
6.3 TinyOS
The one of the most important custom software component is the TinyOS .TinyOS is an
operating system specifically designed to address the needs of wireless sensor networks. It is
based on an event driven execution engine that simultaneously provides efficiency and fine-
grained concurrency. As you know, TinyOS is a real-time operating system designed for use in
sensor network applications where low-power, limited resources and hard real-time constraints
are critical parameters[10][12].

7. Software Design
You should have four commercial off the shelf applications installed on the server , that worked
together to create the Data Analysis portion of the Server component.
Web-Server(Apache)
PHP
MySQL Database
Chart-Director

Apache is a standard web-server, which makes a web document available on the Internet. The
Apache http server is a powerful, flexible, implements the latest protocols is highly configurable
and extensible with third-party modules can be customized by writing 'modules' using the
Apache module API provides full source code and comes with an unrestrictive license runs on
Windows NT/9x, Netware 5.x and above, OS/2, and most versions of Unix, as well as several
other operating systems is actively being developed encourages user feedback through new
ideas, bug reports and patches implements many frequently requested features, including:
DBM databases for authentication
Customized responses to errors and problems
Wireless Sensor Network Software Design


Multiple Directorylndex directives
Unlimited flexible URL rewriting and aliasing
Content negotiation
Virtual Hosts
Configurable Reliable Piped Logs

PHP is a web programming language, which is used to design web pages and allows dynamic web pages.
It is also designed to be used along with a database and included many built-in functions for interfacing
with MySQL database.
MySQL is primarily an relational database management system and therefore ships with no GUI
tools to administer MySQL databases or manage data contained within.MySQL is a database that
can contain any type of data and is accessed through a TCP/IP (Internet) call. MySQL is a popular
choice of database for use in web applications.
ChartDirector is a powerful charting component for creating professional and clickable charts
for web and windows applications. It is a program that generates a graph from raw data. It is available
in many languages such as PHP, ASP, C++, and others[10][12]. It includes several features, Such as:-

Fast and Efficient
Multi-threaded architecture specially designed for the demanding
requirements of server side usage.
Flexible
Object oriented API allows you to control and customize chart details,
enabling you to design the charts you want.
Comprehensive Chart Styles
Pie, bar, line, spline, step line, trend line, curve-fitting, inter-line coloring,
area, scatter, bubble, box-whisker, HLOC, candlestick, simple gantt, radar,
polar. XY axis swapping (rotated charts) and 3D effects.
Layer Architecture
Synchronized chart layers allow chart styles to overlay for arbitrary combo
chart and special effects. For example, box-whisker layers can be used to add
error symbols to any XY chart styles, and scatter layers can be used to
highlight data points with custom symbols.
CDML
The innovative Chart Director Mark Up Language (CDML) technology
allows rich formatting of text with embedding icons and images. CDML is
supported in all ChartDirector text positions, including chart titles, legend
keys, axis labels, data labels, etc.
Advance color system
In additional to ARGB colors (true color with alpha transparency), all objects
in ChartDirector can be painted using "magic colors" - colors that depend on
position. Generates image maps to support tool tips and other mouse
interactions. Ideal for "drill-down" capabilities. Tool tips are customizable and
can include custom text or data. Image maps are "open-ended" and can
include user-defined regions, such as for company logos, icons and buttons.

Wireless Sensor Network WSN Architecture


8. Wireless Sensor Network Architecture
The entire system can be described as consist as two subsystems depending upon the operation
performed by the entire system(Figure 8.1),such as :-
Data Analysis
Data Acquisition

Data Analysis subsystem is software-only . It relied on existing Internet and web (HTTP)
infrastructure to ensure communications between the Client and Server components. The main
use of this subsystem was to selectively present the gathered environmental data to the end user
in a graphical manner.
Data Acquisition subsystem is used to collect and store environmental data for later processing
by the Data Analysis subsystem. This subsystem is consists of PC , embedded system software
and also embedded system hardware. In the other word you can say ,it is composed of both the
Server and Sensor Mote Network components.

(Figure. 8.1 Wireless Sensor Network Architecture)

8.1 Client
The Client component is external to the development of wireless sensor network.That means,
any computer with a web browser and Internet access could be a Client. It served only as a user
interface to the Data Analysis subsystem (Figure 6.1).
8.2 Server
The Server plays a significant role between the Data Acquisition and Data Analysis
subsystems.In case of Data Analysis ,in this side, an web (HTTP) server hosting a web
Wireless Sensor Network WSN Architecture


application. When a page request came in, the web server executes the web application, which
retrieved data from the database, processes it, and returns a web page that is transmitted to the
Client through the web server.In case of Data Acquisition system, there is a daemon (WiseDB)
running to provide the fascility to establish the communication with the Sensor Mote Network.
This daemon collects raw data packets from the Sensor Mote Network. Then these packets are
then processed and then convert the raw data into meaningful environmental data.Then this
processed data is then inserted into the database. Thus the database is the link between the Data
Analysis and Data Acquisition subsystems.
8.3 Sensor Motes
The main focus of wireless sensor network is the development of the Sensor Mote Network
component . Wireless Sensor Networks are collections of motes. Motes are the individual
computers that work together to form networks. It is the component responsible for collecting
and transmitting raw environmental data to the Server. The requirements for motes are extensive.
They must be small, energy efficient, multifunctional, and wireless.
The component consists of two parts. Such as:-
The sensor mote
The gateway mote

The sensor mote is developed to collect and transmit raw environmental data. When not doing
this, it went into a low-power idle mode to conserve energy. It also have some other feature
involved adhoc networking and may be for multi-hop routing;
The second part of the Sensor Mote Network is the gateway mote .The gateway mote is
responsible for serving as the liaison between the Server and the Sensor Mote Network and
transport all the data packets to WiseDB. It is possible to implement both sensor and gateway
motes on the same hardware PCB and with the same software .
8.4 Networking Topologies
You need to coordinate the WSN gateway, end nodes, and router nodes . For which you can use
several network topologies. You can use Router nodes in two different ways ,one way Router
nodes are similar to end nodes as they can acquire measurement data, in other way you also can
use them to pass along measurement data from other nodes.
Star Topology : The most basic topology is the star topology, in which each node is directly
connected with the gateway(Figure 8.2). This topology is simple but restricts the overall distance
that your network can achieve[9][11].

(Figure 8.2 Star Topology)

Cluster or Tree Topology : You can implement a cluster, or tree, topology to increase the
distance a network can cover. This is a more complex structure and in this each node still
maintains a single communication path to the gateway but can use other nodes to route its data
along that path(Figure 8.3). This topology suffers from a problem that if a router node goes
WirelessSensorNetworkRoutingProtocol
down, all the nodes that depend on that router node also lose their communication paths to the
gateway.

(Figure 8.3 Cluster / Tree Topology)

Mesh Network Topology : The mesh network topology eliminates the issue evolved during the
Cluster / Tree Topology by using redundant communication paths to increase system reliability.
In a mesh network, nodes maintain multiple communication paths back to the gateway, hence if
one router node goes down, the network automatically reroutes the data through a different path
(Figure 8.4). The mesh topology is very reliable but from an increase in network latency as data
must make multiple hops before arriving at the gateway[2][9][11].

(Figure 8.4 Mesh Topology)

9. Routing Protocols in WSNs
On the basis of network structure routing in WSNs can be divided into three different categories,
those are, flat-based Routing, hierarchical based routing, and location-based routing depending
on the network structure (Figure 9.1).
In flat-based routing, all nodes are typically assigned equal roles or functionality. In hierarchical
-based routing, however, nodes will play different roles in the network.In location-based routing,
sensor nodes' positions are exploited to route data in the network[1][6][7].

(Figure 9.1 Types of Routing Protocol)

Flat Network Routing Protocol :This category of routing protocols are the multihop flat
routing protocols. Here, each node typically plays the same role and sensor nodes collaborate
together to perform the sensing task. Due to the large number of such type of nodes, it is not
feasible to assign a global identifer to each node[7].
There are various types of flat networking routing protocols ,those are- Sensor Protocols for
Information via Negotiation (SPIN), Directed Diffusion, Rumor Routing, Gradient-Based
Routing (GBR) , Minimum Cost Forwarding Algorithm (MCFA) , COUGAR , ACtive
QUery forwarding In sensoR nEtworks (ACQUIRE), Energy Aware Routing( EAR)[1][6][7].

(Figure 9.2 Different Flat Network Routing Protocols)

Hierarchical Networking Routing Protocol: Hierarchical initially proposed in wireline
networks, are well-known techniques with special advantages related to scalability and efficient
communication. As such, the concept of hierarchical routing is also utilized to perform energy-
efficient routing in WSNs. In a hierarchical architecture, higher energy nodes used to process and
send the information while low energy nodes can be used to perform the sensing in the closeness
of the target. This indicates that creation of clusters and assigning special tasks to cluster heads
can significantly contribute to overall system scalability, lifetime, and energy efficiency. In case
of hierarchical routing, it is an efficient way to lower energy consumption within a cluster and by
performing data aggregation and fusion in order to decrease the number of transmitted messages
to the Base Station.
It is mainly two-layer routing. One layer is used to select cluster heads and the other layer is used
for routing. However, the majority techniques in this kind are not about routing, rather on "who
and when to send or process/aggregate" the information, channel allocation etc., which can be
orthogonal to the multihop routing function.
There are various types of hierarchical routing protocols available,those are -Low Energy
Adaptive Clustering Hierarchy (LEACH), Threshold-sensitive Energy Efficient sensor Network
protocol(TEEN), and Adaptive Periodic Threshold-sensitive Energy Efficient sensor Network
protocol( APTEEN), Power-Efficient Gathering in Sensor Information Systems (PEGASIS) ,
Small Minimum Energy Communication Network (MECN) , Self Organizing Protocol (SOP),
Hierarchical Power-aware Routing (HPAR):, Virtual Grid Architecture routing (VGA), Sensor
aggregate, Two-Tier Data Dissemination (TTDD)[1][6][7].

(Figure 9.3 Different Hierarchical Routing Protocols)

Location Based Routing Protocol: In location based routing protocol, sensor nodes are
addressed by means of their locations. The distance between adjacent nodes can be estimated on
the basis of incoming signal strengths. If a node dont have any activity to perform then location
based schemes demands that nodes should go to sleep so that energy can be saved.More energy
savings can be possible if the number of sleeping nodes is more in the network.
There are various types of location based routing protocols available, those are- Geographic
Adaptive Fidelity (GAF), Geographic and Energy Aware Routing(GEAR), SPAN, Most Forward
within Radius (MFR), The Geographic Distance Routing (GEDIR)[1][6][7].

(Figure 9.4 Different Location Based Routing Protocols)

On the basis of operation, routing protocols can also be classified into different categories, those
are- multipath-based, query-based, negotiation-based, QoS-based, or coherent-based routing
techniques(Figure 9.5)[6][7].

(Figure 9.5 Different Types Protocols on the basis of Operation)

During the research it is observed that there are some protocols that fit under more than one
category. The table in the Figure 9.6 shows comparison between different routing techniques
according to many metrics and also how different routing protocols fit under different category.

(Figure 9.6 Comparison of Routing Protocol in WSNs)

Wireless Sensor Network Security


10. Security
Security and privacy issues become more important because wireless sensor networks are usually
used for very critical applications.
10. 1 Security Threats in WSNs
WSN is used in the several critical applications. A WSN consists of several number of tiny and
resource-constrained sensor nodes. These sensor nodes are spatially distributed and deployed to
collect security-sensitive information in uncontrollable environment. Sensor nodes rely on
wireless communication to deliver the sensed data to a remote base station. In a basic WSN
scenario, resource constraint, wireless communication, security-sensitive data, uncontrollable
environment, and distributed deployment are all vulnerabilities and these vulnerabilities make
WSNs suffer from number of security threats.There are several number of threats in different
layer of network[2][17].
10.1.1 Physical Layer Threats
In physical layer, there may be several threats to the wireless sensor network, due to the non-
tamper-resistant WSN nodes and the broadcasting nature of wireless transmission. Security
threats to WSN are always more than traditional nework.Types of attacks in the physical layer
include physical layer jamming and the subversion of a node.
10.1.2 Link Layer Threats
The responsibility of data link layer is multiplexing of data streams, data frame detection,
mediumaccess, and error control. Types of attacks can be possible in the data linl layer include
Data link layer jamming; Eavesdropping; Resource exhaustion and traffic analysis of wireless
sensor network.
10.1.3 Network Layer Threats
In the network layer ,threats mostly aim at disturbing data-centric and energy efficient multihop
routing.
Types of attacks and threat can be possible in the network layer include Spoofed, altered, or
replayed routing information; Sybil attack; Selective forwarding; Sinkhole attack; and flooding
attack.
10.1.4 Application Layer Threats
Aapplications in the application layar of wireless sensor network (WSN) heavily rely on
localization, time synchronization,and in-network data processing to collaboratively process data
.Types of attacks and threat can be possible in the network layer include False data
filtering;Clock un-synchronization; False data injection.

10.2 Countermeasures
The threats in wireless network either violate network secrecy and authentication or violate
network availability or violate some other network functionalities.Countermeasures to the threats
in WSNs should fulfill the certain security requirements such as :-
Availability: which ensures that the desired network services are available whenever
required.
Authentication : which ensures that the communication from one node to another
node is genuine.
Confidentiality : which provides the privacy of the wireless communication channels.

Wireless Sensor Network Evaluation Metric


Integrity : which ensures that the message or the entity under consideration is not
altered.
Non-reputation : which prevents malicious nodes to hide or deny their activities.
Freshness : which implies that the data is recent and ensures that no adversary can
replay old messages.
Survivability : which ensures the acceptable level of network services even in the
presence of node failures and malicious attacks.
Self-security : countermeasures may introduce additional hardware and software
infrastructures into the network, which must themselves be secure enough to
withstand attacks.
Countermeasures should also fulfill appropriate performance requirements according to the
application[2][17].

11. System Evaluation Metrics
The evaluation metrics that will be used to evaluate a wireless sensor network include as
Network Coverage and Cost &Ease of deployment, Security, Lifetime, and Response Time[3]
[19].
11.1 Network Coverage
Deployement of a network over a larger physical area can significantly increase a systems value
to the end user. It is necessary to remember that the coverage of the network is not equal to the
range of the wireless communication links being used. To extend the coverage of the network
well beyond the range of the radio technology alone, a technology is used called Multi-hop
communication techniques. It is possible for a user to deploy a small trial network at first and
then can frequently add sense points to gather more and different information. A user must be
sure that the network technology being used is capable of scaling to meet its need. If you will
increase the number of nodes in the system .that will put impact either the lifetime or effective
sample rate. Use of more sensing points will cause more data to be transmitted which will
consume more power of the network.
11.2 Cost &Ease of deployment
Ease of deployment is the most important evalution metrics of wireless sensor network. For the
successful deployments of the system, the wireless sensor network must configure itself. It must
be possible for nodes to be placed throughout the environment by an untrained person and have
the system simply work.Ideally, the system would automatically configure itself for any possible
physical node placement. The initial deployment and configuration is only the first step in the
network lifecycle. In the long term, the total cost of ownership for a system may have more to do
with the maintenance cost than the initial deployment cost.It is necessary to go for hardware and
software testing prior to the deployment and also the sensor system must be constructed so that it
is capable of performing continual self-maintenance.
11.3 Security
One of the most required and important metric is the security. A WSN consists of several
number of tiny and resource-constrained sensor nodes. These sensor nodes are spatially
distributed and deployed to collect security-sensitive information in uncontrollable environment.
Wireless sensor networks must have the capability of keeping the information private from
eavesdropping.As we consider security oriented applications, data security becomes even more
Wireless Sensor Network WSN Standardization


significant. The system not only must maintain privacy, it must also have the capability to be
able to authenticate data communication.
11.4 Lifetime
Lifetime is the most critical part wireless sensor network. Energy supply is the main limiting
factor for the lifetime of a sensor network. Each node must be designed to manage its local
supply of energy in order to maximize total network lifetime. In the majority of application
scenarios, a majority of the nodes will have to be self powered. This means they will either have
to contain enough stored energy to last for years, or they will have to be able to search energy
from the environment through several other devices, like solar cells or piezoelectric generators to
increase the lifetime of sensor node. Radio power consumption supply is the important factor for
determining lifetime of a energy supply. In a wireless sensor node the radio consumes a vast
majority of the system energy. So the power consumption need to be reduced to increase the
lifetime of sensor node and that is possible through decreasing the transmission output power or
through decreasing the radio duty cycle.
11.5 Response Time
Response time is also critical performance metric when environmental monitoring is used to
control factory machines and equipment. The industrial process control systems would only be
practical if response time guarantees could be met. Despite low power operation, nodes must be
capable of having immediate, high-priority messages communicated across the network as
quickly as possible. Response time can be improved by including nodes that are powered all the
time. These nodes can listen for the alarm messages and forward them down a routing path in the
network when necessary but it may reduce the ease of deployment for the system[3][19].

12. Standardization
In the vicinity of WSNs, several standards are presently being developed. The main
standardization bodies are the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE),the
Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), the International Society for Automation (ISA) and the
HART Communication Foundation, etc.The above mentioned regularity bodies provide open
standards for low-power wireless sensor devices[2][18].
12.1 IEEE 802.15.4
IEEE 802.15.4 is a standard which specifies the physical layer and MAC layer for low-rate
wireless personal area networks. The standard of IEEE 802.15.4 is foundation for the ZigBee and
Wireless HART specification, each of which further endeavor to offer a complete networking
solution by developing the upper layers which are not enclosed by the standard[2][18].
The features of IEEE 802.15.4 are the following (IEEE 802.15 WPAN Task Group 4, n.d.):
Its Data rates are of 250 kbps, 40 kbps, and 20 kbps.
There are two addressing modes; 16-bit short and 64-bit IEEE addressing.
It provides support for critical latency devices, such as joysticks.
CSMA-CA channel access.
It facilitates coordinator to establish network automatically
It is a fully handshaked protocol for transfer reliability.
It ensures low power consumption.
There are 16 channels in the 2.4GHz ISM band, 10 channels in the 915MHz ISM
band and one channel in the 868MHz band.
Wireless Sensor Network Application


12.2 Zigbee
ZigBee is a standard for a set of high level communication protocols based on the IEEE 802.15.4
standard for low power and low data rate radio communications. Zigbee is initiated and
monitored by the Zigbee Alliance - a big conglomerate of industry players[2][18]. The few
typical application areas of Zigbee are the following:
It assists in Smart energy monitoring.
It is also used in Health care monitoring.
It is functional in Remote control.
It is applied in Building automation and home automation.
12.3 WirelessHART
Wireless HART is an open-standard wireless mesh network communication protocol designed to
meet the needs for process automation applications. The protocol utilizes IEEE 802.15.4 attuned
DSSS radios and it is operating in the 2.4GHz ISM radio band. On the data link layer, the
protocol uses TDMA technology to mediate and manage communications between devices.
The WirelessHART facilitates highly secure communications by using AES-128 block ciphers
with individual J oin and Session Keys and Data-Link level Network Key.WirelessHART
supports the standard HART Application Layer and is compatible with existing HART tools,
applications and system integration technology.The additional features of wirelessHART
include reliability and scalability. We can add new devices for further enhancement of the
network and for its communication reliability[2][18].

13. Applications
Military application was the original motivation behind the research into WSNs .At the later
period of time costs for sensor nodes and communication networks have been reduced and thus
the application area has also increased.
13.1Military surveillance and target tracking
Wireless sensor networks originated mainly in military-related research in the year 1978.
Unattended sensor networks can be rapidly deployed for surveillance and used to provide
battlefield intelligence regarding the location, numbers, movement, and identity of troops and
vehicles, and for detection of chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons. Faster development of
wireless sensor networks has been provided though several programs funded by the US Defense
Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), through a program known as Sensor
Information Technology (SensIT) which provides the present sensor networks with new capabilities
such as ad hoc networking, dynamic querying and tasking, reprogramming and multitasking[1][2].
13.2 Environmental Monitoring
Environmental monitoring can be used for animal tracking, forest surveillance,flood detection,
and weather forecasting. It is a natural candidate for applying WSNs because the variables that is
considered to be temperature, are usually distributed over a large region[2].
13.3 Health Monitoring
Wireless sensor network is a major application in health sector.WSNs can be embedded into a
hospital building to track and monitor patients and all medical resources. There are various
kinds of sensors which can measure blood pressure, body temperature and electrocardiograph
(ECG). A special kind of sensor network called a body sensor network (BSN) formed When the
sensors are worn or implanted for healthcare purposes. BSN is a rich interdisciplinary area which
reforms the healthcare system by allowing inexpensive, continuous and ambulatory health
Wireless Sensor Network Pros and Cons/Future work


monitoring with real-time updates of medical records via the Internet. Now a days a specialized
BSN sensor node and BSN Development Kit are available for use in health monitoring system
[2][10].
13.4 Traffic Control
Traffic control is another area where wireless sensor network plays a major role. Wireless sensor
networks have been used for vehicle traffic monitoring and control for some time. There are
either overhead or buried sensors used to detect vehicles and to control the traffic lights.WSNs
will completely change the landscape of traffic monitoring and control by installing cheap sensor
nodes in the car, at the parking lots, along the roadside. Streetline, Inc. is a company which uses
sensor network technology to help drivers find unoccupied parking places and avoid traffic
jams[1][2][10].
13.5 Industrial Sensing
Sensor nodes can be deeply embedded into machines and there is no infrastructure ,WSNs make
it economically feasible to monitor the health of machines and to ensure safe operation. Aging
pipelines and tanks have become a major problem in the oil and gas industry. Monitoring
corrosion using manual processes is extremely costly, time consuming,and unreliable.A network
of wireless corrosion sensors can be economically deployed to reliably identify issues before
they become catastrophic failures.
13.6 Infrastructure Security
WSNs can be used for infrastructure security and counterterrorism applications. Security is the
major aspect of wireless sensor network. Critical buildings and facilities such as power plants,
airports, and military bases have to be protected from attacks. Networks of video, acoustic, and
other sensors can be deployed around these facilities[1][10]

14. Pros and Cons of Wireless Sensor Networking
There are several advantages of wireless sensor networking as they can store a limited source of
energy, they have no hassle of cables and have mobility. The major advantage is that it can work
efficiently under the harsh conditions, and it has deployment up to large scale etc. Same time it
also has some disadvantages which really take the moral of this technology down as they have
very insufficient speed of communication, it is to disturb the propagation of waves and hack your
networking and the major disadvantage of wireless sensor networking is it is too costly to use.

15. Future Work
As the wireless sensor network is under research, there are a number of improvements we can
think of.
We can think of expanding the sensor mote network by adding more motes. This would
allow the development and testing of advanced network-layer functions, such as multi-
hop routing.
We can think of alternative energy sources to extend mote battery life. Which may
includes solar cells and rechargeable batteries, these systems could provide a long term,
maintenance free, wireless monitoring solution.

Wireless Sensor Network Conclusion


16. Conclusions
Wireless sensor networks must be designed to meet a number of challenging requirements
including extended lifetime in the face of energy constraints, robustness, scalability, and
autonomous operation.
Wireless sensor networks are getting smaller and faster, increasing their potential applications in
commercial, industrial, and residential environments.
However, the limit of applications depends only upon the sensors used and the interpretation of
the data obtained. As the technology improves and new low-power digital sensors become more
readily available, motes will increase functionality without increasing power consumption and
will expand the wireless sensing market.

17. Bibliography

1. Networking Wireless Sensors by Bhaskar Krishnamachari ,2005.
2. Wireless Sensor Networks - An Introduction by QinghuaWang and Ilangko Balasingham.
3. System Architecture for Wireless Sensor Networks by J ason Lester Hill, University of
California, Berkeley ,2003.
4. A Survey of Wireless Sensor Networks Technology by I. Khemapech, I. Duncan and A.
Miller ,School of Computer Science , University of St Andrews ,North Haugh, St Andrews.
5. Data Fusion Improves the Coverage of Wireless Sensor Networks by Guoliang Xing1; Rui
Tan2; Benyuan Liu3; J ianping Wang2;Xiaohua J ia2; Chih-Wei Yi4, 1Department of
Computer Science & Engineering, Michigan State University,USA.
6. Routing Protocols in Wireless Sensor Networks A Survey Shio Kumar Singh 1, M P Singh
2, and D K Singh 3.
7. Routing Techniques in Wireless Sensor Networks: A Survey,J amal N. Al-Karaki Ahmed E.
Kamal Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa
50011.
8. Fundamentals of Wireless Sensor Networks: Theory and Practice, Waltenegus Dargie and
Christian Poellabauer2010 J ohn Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
9. ftp.ni.com/pub/devzone/pdf/tut_7142.pdf
10. Wikipedia
11. Zone.ni.com/devzone/cda/tut/p/id/8707
12. WISENET, SNGCE kolenchery, Dept. ofCSE.
13. Chipcon ,SmartRF CC1010 Datasheet (rev. 1.3) 2004-12-17
14. A Survey of Wireless Sensor Networks Technology I. Khemapech, I. Duncan and A. Miller
School of Computer Science University of St Andrews North Haugh, St Andrews.
15. A survey on routing protocols for wireless sensor networks Kemal Akkaya *, Mohamed
Younis ,Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering, University of
Maryland, Baltimore County, Baltimore.
16. A Hierarchical Routing Protocol for Survivability in Wireless Sensor Network(WSN),
Mohammad S. Al-Fares1, student Member , IEEE, Zhili Sun2, Member, IEEE, Haitham
Cruick shank3, Member, IEEE, IMECS 2009, March 18 - 20, 2009, Hong Kong.
17. Wireless Sensor Network Security Analysis by Hemanta Kumar Kalita1 and Avijit Kar2,
Department of Computer Engineering, J adavpur University, Kolkata, India.
WirelessSensorNetworkBibliography
18. Standards-Based Wireless Sensor Networking Protocols for Spaceflight Applications by

Raymond S. Wagner, Ph.D, NASA J ohnson Space Center.
19. Wireless Sensor Network by priyal shah, Dept.CSE.Ahmadbad, Oct 2010.

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WIRELESS SENSOR NETWORK

Wireless Sensor Network Introduction

18. Standards-Based Wireless Sensor Networking Protocols for Spaceflight Applications by

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