Solar Powered Wireless Sensor Networks for Environmental Applications with Energy Efficient Routing Concepts

摘要

Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) play an important role in monitoring and collecting data from difficult geographical terrains. They find useful applications in various fields ranging from environmental monitoring to monitoring the patients' conditions in hospitals. The constraints such as limited battery life and less processing capability of the sensors make the processing and routing of WSNs a tedious and challenging task. A great emphasis is laid on the development of alternate sources of power and energy efficient routing protocol to maximize the life of the network. This study reviews the utilization of solar energy to enhance the life of the WSNs in environmental applications and also the various routing algorithms for WSNs. In current scenario, there are always impending threats from militants and terrorists within and out of a country. The sensor networks play a vital role in minimizing the loss of human lives in the event of natural calamities and artificial sabotages. The sensor networks can be successfully deployed in any difficult geographical terrains where manual round-the-clock surveillance is highly impossible. Energy aware routing is immensely helpful to sensor networks in the aspect of extending the life span of the WSNs. The review results show that the performance of solar powered sensor networks is better than that of conventional battery powered WSNs and they work efficiently with increased life span.