ABSTRACT
Cyber-physical systems (CPSs) can be found in diverse areas, including aerospace, automobiles, energy, health care, transportation, and consumer appliances. Common applications of CPS normally fall under sensor-based communications. Recent development in wireless technology and the invention of small, inexpensive, low-power microprocessors have led to the emergence of networked, embedded systems named wireless sensor networks (WSNs). A sensor network is an infrastructure consisting of sensing, computing, powersource, and communication elements, which offer the ability to observe, instrument, and react to events and phenomena in a specied environment. WSNs have emerged as an essential technology for monitoring and exploring remote, hostile, and hazardous environments. WSNs may be used in a variety of everyday activities or services. For instance, monitoring is a common application of WSNs, in which sensor nodes are distributed over an area of interest in order to monitor some phenomena. A practical use of WSNs could be found in the military in detecting intrusion (of soldiers, tanks, or vehicles). In this chapter, we explain the fundamental aspects of WSNs and cover WSN technology, applications, communication protocols, routing, clustering, and security.
