A Survey on Wireless Sensor Networks

Wireless Sensor Networks is composed by the convergence of sensor, micro-electro-mechanism system and networks technologies. It consists of small nodes with sensing, computation and wireless communication capabilities. WSNs are used in different applications e.g. environmental monitoring, habitat monitoring, home automation, military application etc., and particularly in recent years with the help of sensors that are smaller, cheaper, and intelligent. The design of WSNs depends on the applications, and also it must consider factors such as the environment, the applications design objectives, cost, hardware, and system constraints. This paper focuses on the study of characteristics, communication architecture, challenges and open issues in WSN. The flexibility, fault tolerance, low-cost and rapid deployment features of the WSNs create many new and exciting application for remote sensing areas. In the future, this wide range of application areas will make sensor networks an integral part of our lives. The challenges and open research issues in WSN can be considered as a source of inspiration for future studies.