Summary
In this research work, a survey on Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) and their technologies, standards and applications was carried out. Wireless sensor networks consist of small nodes with sensing, computation, and wireless communications capabilities. Many routing, power management, and data dissemination protocols have been specifically designed for WSNs where energy awareness is an essential design issue. Routing protocols in WSNs might differ depending on the application and network architecture. A multidisciplinary research area such as wireless sensor networks, where close collaboration between users, application domain experts, hardware designers, and software developers is needed to implement efficient systems. The flexibility, fault tolerance, high sensing fidelity, low cost, and rapid deployment characteristics of sensor networks create many new and exciting application areas for remote sensing. In the future, this wide range of application areas will make sensor networks an integral part of our lives. However, realization of sensor networks needs to satisfy the constraints introduced by factors such as fault tolerance, scalability, cost, hardware, topology change, environment, and power consumption. Key words: Application, Middleware, wireless sensor network survey and protocol
1. Introduction
WIRELESS ad-hoc sensor networks have recently emerged as a premier research topic. They have great longterm economic potential, ability to transform our lives, and pose many new system-building challenges. Sensor networks also pose a number of new conceptual and optimization problems. Some, such as location, deployment, and tracking, are fundamental issues, in that many applications rely on them for needed information. Coverage in general, answers the questions about quality of service (surveillance) that can be provided by a particular sensor network. The integration of multiple types of sensors such as seismic, acoustic, optical, etc. in one network platform and the study of the overall coverage of the system also presents several interesting challenges. With the refinement of energy harvesting techniques that can gather useful energy from vibrations, blasts of radio energy, and the like, self-powered circuitry is a very real possibility, with networks of millions of nodes, deployed through paintbrushes, injections, and aircraft. Also, the introduction of an additional type of sensor nodes allowing the network to self-organize and “learn”, by embedding smart and adaptive algorithms. On the other hand, The use of adaptive power control in IP networks that utilize reactive routing protocols and sleep-mode operation, more powerful mobile agents, QoS (Quality of Service) to guarantee delivery, security mechanisms, robustness and fault-tolerance. Wireless sensors have become an excellent tool for military applications involving intrusion detection, perimeter monitoring, information gathering and smart logistics support in an unknown deployed area. Some other applications: sensor-based personal health monitor, location detection with sensor networks and movement detection.
2. Standards
From [2], while most ongoing work in IEEE 802 wireless working groups is geared to increase data rates, throughput, and QoS, the 802.15.4 LR-WPAN (Low rate- Wireless Personal Area Network) task group is aiming for other goals. The focus of 802.15.4 is on very low power consumption, very low cost, and low data rate to connect devices that previously have not been networked, and to allow applications that cannot use current wireless specifications. Working within a standards organization to develop a wireless solution has the advantage of bringing developers and users of such a technology together in order to define a better solution. The work also fosters high-level connectivity to other types of networks and enables low-volume products that do not justify a proprietary solution to be wirelessly connected.


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