ABSTRACT
Cyber physical systems (CPS) is an interdisciplinary field that combines the components that are physical in nature with those from the virtual world, such as information technology. Embedded computers and networks are used by CPS to integrate analysis of sensor-collected data, transfer of information from one place to other and control of physical elements in a system. A CPS is considered to be like a Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) added to a data- mining module to discover new knowledge from the sensed data. WSNs are networks of small, low-powered, wireless devices that have sensing, communication and on-board processing capability. WSNs are specific to a particular field, whereas CPS do not have such restrictions. This chapter shows the various architectures of CPS, including the functionalities at each level, and discusses the issues, such as routing, localization, synchronization and security, faced and handled by CPS. The challenges encountered by CPS in node deployment, mobility, efficient energy usage, aggregation of collected data, ensuring service quality and resource management are dealt with in detail.
