Sensor networks: Motivations, implementations and applications

Due to advances in micro-sensors, wireless networking, and embedded processing, ad-hoc networks of sensors (popularly known as sensor networks) are becoming increasingly available for commercial, industrial, and military applications such as health and environmental monitoring (e.g., patient care, traffic, habitat, pollutant), industrial sensing and diagnostics (e.g., factory automation, appliances), infrastructures (e.g., power grids, water distribution, waste disposal, security), and battlefield awareness (e.g., detection, localization, multi-target tracking). In this presentation, we will first provide a brief history and motivations on sensor network. Then we will discuss various technical aspects covering theory, implementation, system, and applications. Topics in networking and protocols, embedded systems, distributed processing, and signal/array processing will be considered. We will consider the challenges and potentials of sensor networks both at the technological and application points of view.