A wireless sensor network (WSN) consists of distributed
independent devices and they use sensors to check physical or environmental
conditions. This system incorporates a gateway in which wireless connectivity
is provided back to the distributed nodes. The wireless protocol that is selected
depends on the requirements of the application.
There is an increased adoption of wireless sensors in
different industries across the world. The main reason is that it can be
implemented easily and can be operated in harsh environments. It can easy
troubleshoot and repair. Wireless sensors networks have high levels of
performance.
These wireless sensor networks can be used in hostile
environments where it is not recommended to deploy wired networks. For example
deploying wired setup in a forest is not possible because you can’t go down
there so that wireless sensor nodes are dropped.
Wireless sensor network can easily be expendable that’s why this
network is being used in different applications like structural health monitoring.
If there is a need of dense wired setup for making network stronger, then it is
usually very costly and not easy to install. On the other hand wireless network
can easily be deployed without facing any problem.
If you have adopted wireless sensors networks at any level,
you must know their prevalence in different industries. As it is widely used in
different industries, some of the main applications are given as follows
Area monitoring
It is a very common application of WSNs in which the WSN is deployed
over a region where monitoring is required.
Environmental Tracking
In the environmental tracking, these networks can be used in
environmental tracking like animal tracking, forest detection, flood detection,
weather forecasting and prediction. It also has some commercial applications such
as seismic activities prediction and monitoring.
Military Applications
These wireless sensor networks are also used in
surveillance. The sensor network has the sensor nodes that are dropped to the required
field and then a user controls them remotely. These networks can also be used
in enemy tracking and security detections. These sensor networks can be used
for different military purposes like monitoring the enemies and the protection
of the force.
Health Applications
Health industry is the most important industry in which
these sensors are used. They are used for tracking and monitoring of patients.
The users of this network in health industry include the doctors. These wireless
sensor networks are used to deliver significant improvements in the performance
of the healthcare industry. These sensors are used to monitor the body signs of
the patients like temperature, blood pressure, heart rate, oxygen saturation,
etc.
Transport systems
The wireless sensors are most frequently used in the field
of Transport field. These sensors are used in intelligent transportation system
and helps in monitoring the traffic and parking lots, dynamically managing the
routing etc. It is mainly used in improving the transportation system.
Some of the other applications of the wireless sensor networks are rapid emergency response, climate control, industrial process
monitoring, ecosystem and habitat monitoring, and civil structural health monitoring,
etc.
