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health care personnel (Jafari et al. 2005). They can also be used in the study of
the behavior of patients by remotely monitoring and helping behavioral scientists
in their research. Such networks can be used for early detection of clinical dete-
rioration of patients in hospitals or can provide emergency care in large disasters
such as earthquakes or flooding (Ko et al. 2010).
Smart homes: Wireless sensors have played a major role in improving “smart
home” technologies (Byoung-Kug et al. 2008). For example, a smart refrigerator
equipped with embedded WSN technology can sense if the home owner is low
on groceries and can send a text message/email to the owner's cell phone with an
alert message. WSN have played a crucial role in enhancing safety measures for
cars by sensing the possibility of a collision and automatically applying brakes
(Lai et al. 2010). In addition, wireless sensors can be used in automating utility
bills by remotely reading utility meters installed in homes to measure usage of
gas, water, or electricity.
1.1.1.2 Military Applications
WSN have become an integral part of many military applications (Lee et al. 2009).
The ease of deployment of WSN in any ad-hoc environment and the ability to self-
configure have made them the number-one choice in battlefield environments.
Moreover, the use of such intelligent and autonomous networks reduces casualties
and takes the art of warfare to a whole new level. For example, motion-detecting sen-
sors can be used to track the presence of enemy forces on land, air, or water and can
facilitate constant surveillance.
Sensors can be placed on manned or unmanned robots to guide them around
obstacles and help them interact better among themselves. In addition, they can be
used on missiles for pinpoint-precision attacks.
1.2 History of WSN
Work in WSN began as early as the onset of the Cold War, with the development
of a Sound Surveillance System (SOSUS) by the United States to detect and moni-
tor the Soviet Union's submarines. Over the years, many sophisticated acoustic sen-
sor networks have been developed for submarine surveillance. In the early 1980s,
the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA) initiated research in
WSN by initiating the Distributed Sensor Network (DSN) program (Chee-Yee and
Kumar 2003). Basically, DSN consisted of many spatially distributed sensing nodes
that operated autonomously and made independent routing decisions. During this
time, the U.S. Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPANET) was suc-
cessful in establishing about 200 hosts at various research institutes and universities,
and the founders of ARPANET were curious to know whether the approaches used
in designing communication protocols for ARAPNET could be used in DSN. Most
of the pivotal technological constituents for a DSN were identified at the Distributed
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