Pervasive remote sensing through WSNs

The infrastructure of a Wireless Sensor Network enables data collection of heterogeneous quantities in a distributed and pervasive way. The embedded sensing devices implement alerting mechanisms for the real-time detection of specific application-oriented events. Complex processing functionalities can be demanded to an external processing unit that is wirelessly connected to the network of sensors in order to provide real-time response to the interactions with the environment. In this sense, WSNs represent a valuable tool for remote sensing as well as for autonomous control of processes. Starting from some state of the art WSN-based systems, this paper is aimed at proposing an architecture as backbone for the development of monitoring systems that can be easily managed by remote and without the need of highly-trained staff.