ABSTRACT
Wireless communication in recent years has managed to open doors to change the quality of life in society. Its impact has influenced multiple areas, such as the energy field, health, buildings, and agriculture, among others, making the management of activities practically automatic and less risky. This chapter aims to give an overview of the most common and current applications of WSNs, as well as to mention the main problems and disadvantages when implementing them. WSNs are powerful tools that provide access to large amounts of data in remote conditions; however, the way to increase their period of activity associated with electric power is still under study. For this purpose, the possibility of combining them with renewable energies is being evaluated. The solution to the requirements of WSNs will boost their performance in solving time-critical and precision problems, mainly in fields such as agriculture and medicine. In addition, this chapter mentions previous methods for the correct implementation of WSNs, such as simulators, specifically network simulators (NS2 and NS3 versions), which are tools that are commonly used to test WSNs since they verify the performance of the network and allow corrections to be made prior to its manufacture. Each communication technology is classified according to different attributes, mainly by communication range and data transfer rate. In conclusion, WSNs provide advantages in multiple social areas, whose criticality makes use of well-implemented and secure networks, that transmit data reliably, in real-time, and with the required accuracy to support the monitoring and control of industrial plants or medical analysis.
