In particular, tetherless sensor nodes have a limited amount of energy
which usually cannot be replenished. While there are some WSN applications
which require few, possibly tethered, sensor nodes, the design of large-scale,
tetherless sensor networks is an important problem from the networking standpoint.
In the next couple of subsections, we provide our motivation, scope and
a brief outline.
1.1 Motivation and Scope
The principles of traditional network design cannot be directly applied to the
design of communication protocols for the WSNs we consider. This is because
traditional communication networks aim to support a diverse set of users,
each with their individual objectives. Hence, there is a need to design the
network in a modular, interoperable and generic fashion, leading to a layered
protocol architecture. This approach yields a platform that can support any
new application on top of the existing network. This multi-service paradigm
has been very much at the core of networking research in the 1980s and
1990s. Such an approach is unsuitable for theWSNs considered in this chapter
because of the following characteristic features which di?®erentiate them from
traditional communication networks:
4
1. The large density of nodes, which begs for sensors that are cheap to manufacture
and ready to deploy;
2. The application diversity, which requires di?®erent kinds of applicationspecific
sensor devices;
3.
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