ABSTRACT
The basic component of a smart environment is a small node with sensing and wireless communications capabilities, able to organize itself flexibly into a network for data collection and delivery. The architecture of a sensor node consists of two main components: defining the precise way in which functionality is needed and how to integrate it coherently in a sensor node. The large variety of sensor node architectures has been built up to this moment. A sensor network is a very powerful tool when compared to a single sensing device. It consists of a large number of nodes, equipped with a variety of sensors that are able to monitor different characteristics of a phenomenon. The combination of the data–centric features of sensor networks and the need to have a dynamic reconfigurable structure has led to a new architecture that provides enhanced capabilities than the existing ones.
