Wireless Sensor Networks: A Descriptive Study on its Types, Topologies and Applications

Abstract

The rapidly increasing demand for the applications of Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) has attracted researchers from various fields to explore the opportunities that this technology can offer. This paper aims to provide a descriptive study on the overview of WSNs, to discuss their types, the common topologies for structured networks, and their application in various fields. WSNs can be generally classified into five types, namely, terrestrial, underground, underwater, multimedia, and mobile. The WSNs topological structure is classified into point-to-point, star, tree, mesh, and hybrid. Among the WSN applications to be discussed are in the environment, medical and healthcare, home, military, disaster relief operations, transportation, logistics, industrial control, security, education, and entertainment.