Wireless Sensor Networks: Concepts and Components

Abstract

Nowadays, heterogeneous sensor networks can be found in application contexts such as environment monitoring, agriculture, warehouse tracking, transport logistics, surveillance and health care, as discussed in Chap. 3. In this chapter we discuss current middleware architectures for distributed sensor systems, where wireless sensor networks are part of the architecture. These middleware architectures refer to software and tools that hide the complexity and heterogeneity of hardware and network platforms. We present an extensive review of existing middleware solutions for wireless sensor networks. This review includes the definition of a taxonomy of operating software for wireless sensor data and a review of several important subjects: remote (re)configuration approaches, middleware architectures inside the WSN, Internet-based integration of sensor data and finally IP-based homogeneous middleware solutions. After reading this chapter, the reader will know precisely what solutions have been investigated and what different paradigms and systems exist concerning middleware software for wireless and hybrid sensor networks.