Wireless Sensor Networks
Linsey Sledge, Stacia Klim, & Brooke Sheppard
Professor Melander
ITEC 200-004
A new up and coming technology that is sure to have a major impact on one’s daily life, as well as on the function of businesses are Wireless Sensor Networks. Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) are a series of small wireless sensor that gather, process, and deliver information about the physical environment to external systems (Gomez). WSNs are in the early stages of their use, but provided great potential as scientists are discovering new ways of utilizing WSN in controlling and monitoring the physical environment. Throughout this report we will build upon the understanding of Wireless Sensor Network’s function and architecture, as well as an exploration of their various applications to the corporate world.
Wireless Sensor Networks are broken into two networks; the data acquisition network collects information, from sensory nodes, about a physical environment and the data distribution network distributes the information collected from a management center to the appropriate people for research and analysis (Lewis). The networks are driven by scalability (the ability to continue effective information collects has sensory nodes increase), energy-efficiency, and strong foundations (Zhao). Autonomous sensory nodes, which grouped together can be homogenous or heterogeneous, are distributed within an environment. The environment, the communication modalities used, and the topology used determine if the communication between the sensory nodes and the management center is sparse, dense, or redundant (Romer). The sensory node, ranging from the size of brick to a grain of dust, consists of a communication modality, an infrastructure, form of energy, and sensors (Romer). The communication modalities include radio waves, lights, lasers, or sound. Radio waves, utilized most frequently, use a frequency spectrum to wirelessly transfer the sensory information in packets through routers to the management center. The infrastructure is controlled by a microprocessor and allows the node to collect and store information. In infrastructure networks the information can only be sent to the management center; however in ad-hoc (infrastructure-less) networks the information can be transferred from node to node (Romer). The sensory nodes can be distributed in a variety of topologies; most commonly used are star, ring, bus, tree, or graph (Ganesan).
The Sensors collect a wide variety of information. Originally developed by the military to plan strategic warfare, the sensors physically interact with the environment. The sensors measure physical properties (pressure, temperature, humidity, flow), motion properties (position, velocity, angular velocity, acceleration), contact properties (strain, force, torque, slip, vibration), presence properties (contact, proximity, distance, motion), and identification properties (Lewis). Additional sensors can be used to collect more detailed information; Smart sensors provide conditioning, processing, and decision making function and Virtual sensors, a component of the Smart sensor, include conditioning and digital signal processing to ensure reliable estimates.
Wireless Sensor Networks provide a potential highly profitable technology for businesses as their development continues. Such benefits of the WSN include low cost, low power, and smart technology (Gomez). A network system with such advantages promises increased efficiency, as the WSN would be able to monitor, collect, and process information about the physical environment at a low cost. There are many examples, ranging from Healthcare to field research, in which WSN’s could and currently is improving businesses operations. A first example of Wireless Sensor Networks being innovated to regulate the environment is in Taiwan, where biologists are using WSN to collect the “rate of downstream samplers so that the impact of a full flood cycle on stream chemistry can be assessed at the peak of the flood,” (Porter 3). Thus, companies can use this technology to gather information to track trends and uncontrollable events as they have done with the floods in Taiwan through the WSN information provided.
A second example of corporate potential for WSN is in customer relations as the technology is being developed to monitor people’s feelings and emotional reactions (Thilmany 18). For example, WSN can monitor how a person feels when they are snowboarding, at different times throughout their snowboarding experience (Thilmany 18). . Companies then can invent new snowboards, or other types of sports equipment that create a thrill, specifically geared towards the type of excitement a person enjoys. This new technology could completely change what products companies create, and how they market these products as it can be used to monitor customers emotions and desires.
A final example is the use of WSN in the Healthcare field. Using the physical environment sensors patients could be thoroughly monitored through the networks such that decreased hospital staff would be required and potentially patients could even be monitored from their own homes. Yet with the many possible applications of WSN in monitoring various environments for business purposes there are concerns with confidentiality and security of the information being processed as well as many privacy issues that can be particularly correlated with human based businesses, such as healthcare and sales.
This report has explored the infrastructure of the WSN as well as the possible applications of the technology to emphasize its prospective role in businesses. The small sensors can be strategically placed in many different areas of person or environmental surroundings to gather, process, and deliver information, which will provide great advantages to a large assortment of business applications. There is still a ways to go with this developing networking technology and intergrading it into the corporate world, but the potential for Wireless Sensor Networks is tremendous.
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