Energy Efficiency in Cooperative Wireless Sensor Networks

Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) are composed by a large number of sensor nodes, which are usually small in size and are deployed inside or close to some phenomenon of interest. Moreover, since usually there is no need for regular or predefined deployment, the sensors can be placed over irregular or inaccessible areas. Therefore, according to [2], it is expected that the sensors possess self-organizing capabilities. Such attributes provide to the WSNs a large number of applications such as medical, military, and commercial. For instance, in medical applications wireless sensor networks can be used in patient monitoring systems. In the military, the fast set-up and self-organizing characteristics of the sensors make WSNs interesting for communication applications, security, monitoring, and terrain recognition. Commercial applications can include inventory management, product quality control and monitoring disaster areas.