Wireless Sensor Networks (Drahtlose Netze)

With the term ‘wireless sensor networks’ we refer to collections of hundreds or even thousands of ‘sensor nodes’. They allow for a widespread observation of distributed natural phenomena without interfering much. A sensor node is an electronic device equipped with sensors, computing units, and wireless communication modules. This mini-computer is equipped with a battery to survive for weeks or months. It measures features of its environment, processes the data, and communicates it to a neighboring node or to a base station. There is a wide variety of applications that come with different challenges. The main challenge is minimization of energy consumption.

In this lecture we cover among other subjects:

• hardware aspects of sensor nodes
• physics and protocols of wireless communication
• routing in wireless networks
• time synchronization and localization in wireless networks
• data management and data processing in wireless sensor networks
• applications of wireless sensor networks

• H. Karl and A. Willig: Protocols and Architecture for Wireless Sensor Networks, Wiley, Chichester, 2005, ISBN 0-470-09510-5