3. Discussion
There is no doubt that WSNs enjoy remarkable capabilities which make them ideal for an ever- extending range of applications. On the other hand, the operation of WSNs comes up with serious problems. Some of them are application dependent.
For instance, in military applications the required physical dimensions and weight of nodes are application dependent. For instance, in some surveillance applications the sensor nodes have to be extremely small in order to be undercover, while in many other military applications, physical dimensions and weight of the nodes are not considered to be important restrictions. On the other hand, nodes in such applications should definitely have an adequately extensive communication range (maybe ≥1 km), while the area to be covered is several square kilometers. Also, communication should attain optimal throughput, reliability, security, and resistance to jamming and intervention. Moreover, nodes should be robust enough to resist severe ambient conditions. Similarly, the WSN should be tolerant to the loss of a certain quantity of nodes.
In health applications, the physical dimensions and weight of the nodes have to be as small as possible particularly in the cases where they are wearable. Conversely, there is not any need for an extended communication range of nodes or area covered. Communication should be fault tolerant, fast, and reliable while jamming should be definitely avoided because the transmission of data is absolutely vital when time critical alert information is sent.
In flora and fauna applications, the limitations, if any, for physical dimensions and weight of the nodes are application dependent. For instance, in WSNs used in livestock farming, nodes which are implanted under the skin of animals must be as small as possible while in agricultural applications such limitations are usually absent. Also, in flora and fauna applications, nodes should be robust enough to stand ambient conditions. Similarly, the WSNs should be tolerant to the loss of a certain quantity of nodes. In addition, in some cases there is need for an extended communication range of nodes and area covered. The volume of data transferred is usually high, but the communication standards that should be met are not very high.
In environmental monitoring the physical dimensions and weight of the nodes are not considered to be the first requisite. Instead, the construction of the nodes has to be extremely robust in order to tolerate severe ambient conditions. Also, both the communication range and the area covered should be adequately wide. Additionally, communication should be resistant to jamming because emergency alerts should be transmitted without delay. Moreover, the WSN should be tolerant to the loss of a certain quantity of nodes.
In industrial applications most tasks are time critical while in the industrial environment the presence of electromechanical interference is remarkable. Therefore, communication should achieve optimal throughput, reliability, and resistance to jamming and interference. It may also be necessary to operate under strict security standards. The communication range and the area covered depends on the nature of the specific application and as do the physical dimensions and weight of the nodes.
In the urban domain, there are different conditions that must be fulfilled in indoor and outdoor applications. Precisely, in WSNs for indoor use nodes have to be of relatively small physical dimensions and weight. Usually there is no need for the communication range and the area covered to be wide. Conversely, communication should attain high security to protect privacy and should resist interference caused by other home appliances. On the other hand, in outdoor urban applications, the physical dimensions and weight of nodes are of minor importance. Yet, both the communication range and the area covered need to be wide. Also, the communication should achieve high levels of throughput, security, reliability, and resistance to jamming and intervention due to the huge volume of data transmitted. Moreover, nodes should be robust enough to ambient conditions. Also, the WSN should be tolerant to the loss of a certain quantity of nodes.
The abovementioned considerations, regarding the required features that WSNs should have per type of application, are synoptically presented in Table 1.
Table 1. Required specifications of Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) per type of application.
Type of Application |
Required Specifications |
Node Weight and Dimensions |
Node Robustness |
Communication Range |
Communication Throughput |
Communication Reliability |
Communication Security |
Network Tolerance |
Military |
Application dependent |
Very High |
Wide |
Very High |
Very High |
Very High |
Very High |
Health |
Small |
High |
Small |
Very High |
Very High |
High |
High |
Flora and Fauna |
Application dependent |
High |
Wide |
Medium |
Medium |
Low |
High |
Environmental |
Of minor importance |
Very High |
Wide |
Very High |
High |
High |
Very High |
Industrial |
Application dependent |
Very High |
Application dependent |
Very High |
Very High |
High |
Very High |
Urban |
Indoor |
Small |
Medium |
Small |
Medium |
Very High |
Very High |
High |
Outdoor[M1] |
Of minor importance |
Very High |
Wide |
Very High |
Very High |
Very High |
Very High |
Additionally, apart from the aforementioned issues that are application dependent, the operation of WSNs is also obstructed due to general issues, such as difficulties of wireless communication and weaknesses of the nodes.
Specifically, sensor nodes of WSNs suffer from extremely strict energy constraints. This is because their energy is typically supplied by batteries which are usually impractical to be either recharged or replaced, since the locations of sensor nodes are usually difficult or even impossible to reach. Therefore, the attainment of energy conservation is a vital issue for WSNs. For this reason, energy inefficiencies that exist at every one of the five layers of the protocol stack of sensor nodes must be eliminated. Given that data transmission is by far the most energy consuming task of nodes, power control schemes
[47], data aggregation schemes that decrease the size of data transferred
[48],
[49] and energy efficient routing protocols
[50] have been proposed. Likewise, in applications in which multimedia data are transmitted, the use of compression and restoration schemes provide a substantial reduction of communication load
[51][52]. Additionally, the presence of excessive data traffic in a specific region of a WSN causes network congestion which obstructs data transmission, generates packet losses, and decreases the network throughput. For this reason, methodologies for congestion avoidance
[53][54][55], congestion control
[56][57], and load balancing
[58][59] are used. Furthermore, each time that a node is disconnected from the rest of the network, due to, malfunction, damage, or energy depletion the communication for the remainder becomes more difficult and the communication cost is increased. For this reason, methods for the preservation of network connectivity are essential to be applied
[60][61]. Moreover, it is anticipated that the nodes achieve the best exploitation of their sensing range and their communication range in order to cover as much of the network area. This is why coverage maximization methods are considered
[62][63]. Moreover, in WSN applications where multimedia data are transmitted, the attainment of high Quality of Service (QoS) is a necessity. Furthermore, the accomplishment of energy efficient routing in WSNs is often influenced by other issues such as the QoS attained
[64][65]. Last but not least, in most WSN applications, the data transmitted within the network must be protected from any unauthorized use. For this reason, security preservation schemes are used
[66][67].
4. Conclusions
The usage of WSNs already provides remarkable advantages for various domains of human activity. Thanks to the continuous evolution of technology both the capabilities of sensor nodes will keep expanding and their manufacturing costs will become lower. This is the reason why the range of WSN applications is expected to carry on growing.
In this article, the utilization of WSNs in specific domains, namely military, environmental, flora and fauna, health, industrial, and urban, was examined via the investigation of corresponding typical examples, both novel and well-known ones. From this examination, it became evident that the usage of WSNs not only provides numerous advantages in specific domains when compared against the relative means and methods that were traditionally used, but it also introduces novel applications. Additionally, for various applications both the problems and solutions developed, were identified and discussed.
The combinational utilization of relative methodologies and tools will assist both the enhancement of existing applications and the development of novel ones. On the other hand, certain problems that obstruct the usage of WSNs, such as energy limitations, congestion, connectivity loss, inadequate coverage, low QoS, and susceptible security, will remain at the center of scientific research.