Ubiquitous Sensor Networks - Application and Multidisciplinary Aspects of Wireless Sensor Networks - page 254

Chapter 13
Ubiquitous Sensor Networks
Zhilbert Tafa
Ubiquitous computing is a new concept that could be defined as a technology which
can be available anywhere that it is useful and economically viable to expect to find
a sensor. Sensor network is recognized to be a key technology for building a ubiq-
uitous system. Small physical dimensions of sensor nodes are often one of the musts
in a typical ubiquitous network, since it is dedicated to unobtrusive integration into
living, working, scientific, industrial, and other environments. This implies high
integration of sensing, computing, and communication capabilities of the devices
meeting at the same time application-specific demands. Using mostly wireless
infrastructure, ubiquitous technologies are supposed to interface the physical envi-
ronment in various circumstances such as military, home, working, health, industry,
etc. This makes implementation of the ubiquitous sensing highly application-specific.
Interfacing issues along with the interoperability between different technologies are
the most demanding parts of the system design. Many constraints here bring up
challenges in various engineering fields such as sensing, energy conservation, com-
munication, security issues, etc. These issues are often complementary coupled,
which makes the process of finding the optimal solution more complicated.
The main components of a ubiquitous sensor network (USN) can be grouped
in [ 1 ]:
• Sensor Network : Comprising sensors, independently energy supplied, used for
collecting and transmitting information about their surrounding environment
• Access Network : Intermediary or sink nodes collecting information from group
of sensors and facilitating communication with control center or with external
entities
• Network infrastructure : Based on future NGN (next-generation network)
• USN Middleware : Software for the collection and processing of large volumes
of data
• USN Applications Platform : A technology platform to enable the effective use
of a USN in a particular application