Wireless Sensor Networks

Dear Colleagues,

In the past couple of decades, wireless communications have expanded at an extraordinary rate, permeating every environment. The M2M paradigm is generally referred to by the more common term of the Internet of things (IoT), and both terms are sometimes used interchangeably. The IoT is generally described as a system of interconnected objects (things) that are capable of communicating with each other over the Internet without human active intervention. A key infrastructure that provides support to the IoT paradigm is wireless sensor networks (WSNs). WSNs consist of a set of spatially distributed electronic devices, commonly called nodes, deployed in an area of interest that collect and share information gained from their surroundings. Depending on the application, WSNs can have a varying number of sensor nodes, stretching from a few units to dozens or even hundreds.

The potential fields of application of WSNs are essentially aligned to those of the IoT paradigm, ranging from home automation to industry and manufacturing control, transportation, vehicular networking, agriculture, commerce, and health and body monitoring.

Nodes in a WSN are generally composed of at least four modules in charge of four main functions: sensing, communication, energy supply, and control.

Wireless Sensor Networks comprise a set of major components, including:

• WSN platforms;
• Wearable devices;
• WSN data management;
• Cross-layer design;
• WSN architectures and protocol stack;
• Authentication, data security, and protection;
• WSN and artificial intelligence, edge computing;
• Energy harvesting.

This Topic aims to collect the results of research in these Wireless Sensor Network scenarios, as well as the results of similar research. The submission of papers concerning areas with a strong connection to engineering and industrial and manufacturing applications is strongly encouraged.

Dr. Alvaro Araujo Pinto
Dr. Hacene Fouchal
Topic Editors