ABSTRACT
In recent years, the reliability of microsensors and the robustness of sensor networks have improved to the point that networks of microsensors have been deployed in large numbers for a variety of applications. The prevalence of localized networks and the ubiquity of the Internet have enabled automated and human-monitored sensing to be performed with an ease and expense acceptable to many commercial and government users. Some operational and technical issues remain unsolved, such as how to balance energy consumption against frequency of observation and node lifetime, the level of collaboration among the sensors, and distance from repeater units or reachback stations. However, the trend in sensor size is to become smaller, and at the same time the networks of sensors are becoming increasingly powerful. As a result, a wide range of applications use distributed microsensor networks for a variety of tasks, from battlefield surveillance and reconnaissance to environment monitoring and industrial controls.
