The Design of a Wireless Sensor Network

The design of WSN includes various disciplines like database, query processing, networking, algorithms and distributed systems. The basic functionality of WSN generally depends on the applications but the following requirements are typical. I) determine the value of a parameter at a given location. II) Detect the occurrence of events of interest and estimate the parameters of the events. III) Classify the object that has been detected. IV) Track an object. Sensing principles include mechanical, chemical, thermal, electrical, chromatographic, magnetic, biological, fluidic, optical, ultrasonic, and mass sensing. The sensor networks may be exposed to hostile environments like high temperature, high noise level or corrosive chemicals. Typical sensor parameters include physical measurement, Chemical and biological measurement, and event measurement.

The hardware components of WSN must include the sensing and actuation unit, the processing unit, the communication unit, power unit and other application dependant units. Sensors generally have four basic hardware subsystems. A) Power, B)Computational logic and storage, C) Sensor transducers, D) communication unit. Sensors have five basic software subsystems. I) Operating system microcode(middleware), II) Sensor drivers, III) Communication processors, IV) Communication drivers, V) Data processing mini-apps. Sensor nodes have to deal with certain resource constraints like power consumption, communication, computation, and uncertainty in measured parameters.

The electromagnetic spectrum provides an unguided medium for point to point and /or broadcast radio transmission. A transmission channel is never perfect because it is subjected to noise sources. The following factors are considered w...

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...ocols concerned. The security framework discussed here is helpful in designing the system architecture. There are various issues and challenges while designing the architecture. Certain issues are discussed in this paper. The future challenge lies in overcoming the stated issues. The new technology should be able to harness several possibilities in managing the farm sector precisely. In the near future, agriculture sector can face multiple challenges. The recent trends should address them and should help in successfully building the prototypes.

The agriculture sector in Indian context is still using age old technique and it is important to upgrade the entire system. The present day technology will help in getting the right crop, analyzing different parameters like weather, soil temperature, and moisture in air and it will help the farmer to maximize their benefits.