Page 1 of 10
European Journal of Business &
Social Sciences
Available at https://ejbss.org/
ISSN: 2235-767X
Volume 06 Issue 12
December 2018
Available online: https://ejbss.org/ P a g e | 341
Wireless Sensor Network: Architecture, Design Issues and
Applications
RITU BHARDWAJ* EKTA DUREJA**
Assistant Professors, Faculty of Computer Science,
S.D. (PG) College, Panipat
ABSTRACT
Wireless sensor networks is composed of large number of nodes that have capabilities to
sense their surroundings, perform computations and communicate wirelessly to their neighbor
nodes and base station. Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) are one of the most interesting
research areas and have become very popular technology. Wireless sensor networks have
unique properties which make the design of protocols and applications especially challenging:
a finite energy budget, limited processing capabilities, scaling requirements coming from high
node densities, the need for intelligent local collaboration, in-network processing and many
more. The purpose of this paper is to provide a brief technical introduction to WSN
architecture, few potential applications, various essential issues and research challenges. For
the performance and efficiency of the WSN to reveals the important issues that to be taken
into consideration while designing the WSN routing protocol.
Key Words: Design issues, Routing Protocol, Sensor, Wireless Sensor Networks
1. INTRODUCTION
Currently, WSN (Wireless Sensor Network) is the most standard services employed in
commercial and industrial applications, because of its technical development in a processor,
communication, and low-power usage of embedded computing devices. The WSN is built
with nodes that are used to observe the surroundings like temperature, humidity, pressure,
position, vibration, sound etc. These nodes can be used in various real-time applications to
Page 2 of 10
European Journal of Business &
Social Sciences
Available at https://ejbss.org/
ISSN: 2235-767X
Volume 06 Issue 12
December 2018
Available online: https://ejbss.org/ P a g e | 342
perform various tasks like smart detecting, a discovery of neighbor node, data processing and
storage, data collection, target tracking, monitor and controlling, synchronization, node
localization, and effective routing between the base station and nodes.
Presently, WSNs are beginning to be organized in an enhanced step. It is not awkward to
expect that in 10 to 15 years that the world will be protected with WSNs with entree to them
via the Internet. This can be measured as the Internet becoming a physical n/w. This
technology is thrilling with infinite potential for many application areas like medical,
environmental, transportation, military, entertainment, homeland defense, crisis management
and also smart spaces.
2. WIRELESS SENSOR NETWORK
A Wireless Sensor Network is one kind of wireless network includes a large number of
circulating, self-directed, minute, low powered devices named sensor nodes called motes.
These networks certainly cover a huge number of spatially distributed, little, battery-operated,
embedded devices that are networked to caringly collect, process, and transfer data to the
operators, and it has controlled the capabilities of computing & processing. Nodes are the tiny
computers, which work jointly to form the networks.
The sensor node is a multi-functional, energy efficient wireless device. The applications of
motes in industrial are widespread. A collection of sensor nodes collects the data from the
surroundings to achieve specific application objectives. The communication between motes
can be done with each other using transceivers. In a wireless sensor network, the number of
motes can be in the order of hundreds/ even thousands. In contrast with sensor n/ws, Ad Hoc
networks will have fewer nodes without any structure.
3. WIRELESS SENSOR NETWORK ARCHITECTURE
The most common WSN architecture follows the OSI architecture Model. The architecture of
the WSN includes five layers and three cross layers. Mostly in sensor n/w we require five
layers, namely application, transport, n/w, data link & physical layer. The three cross planes
are namely power management, mobility management, and task management. These layers of
the WSN are used to accomplish the n/w and make the sensors work together in order to raise
the complete efficiency of the network.
Page 3 of 10
European Journal of Business &
Social Sciences
Available at https://ejbss.org/
ISSN: 2235-767X
Volume 06 Issue 12
December 2018
Available online: https://ejbss.org/ P a g e | 343
Wireless Sensor Network Architecture
3.1 Application Layer: The application layer is liable for traffic management and offers
software for numerous applications that convert the data in a clear form to find positive
information. Sensor networks arranged in numerous applications in different fields such as
agricultural, military, environment, medical, etc.
3.2 Transport Layer: The function of the transport layer is to deliver congestion avoidance
and reliability where a lot of protocols intended to offer this function are either practical on
the upstream. These protocols use dissimilar mechanisms for loss recognition and loss
recovery. The transport layer is exactly needed when a system is planned to contact other
networks.
Providing a reliable loss recovery is more energy efficient and that is one of the main reasons
why TCP is not fit for WSN. In general, Transport layers can be separated into Packet driven,
Event driven. There are some popular protocols in the transport layer namely STCP (Sensor
Transmission Control Protocol), PORT (Price-Oriented Reliable Transport Protocol and
PSFQ (pump slow fetch quick).
