ABSTRACT
In a wireless sensor and actor network (WSAN), several cooperation tasks must take place to comply with the specific requirements of the application, one of these cooperation tasks is related to the coordination process between the elements of the WSAN, namely the sensor and the actor nodes. The sensor node collects data from the environment and may report data-related events to the actors. As a result, the actors can proceed to execute a task in accordance with the event data received from the sensor nodes, this procedure requires the implementation of a coordination mechanism. In this chapter, a framework for the study and the analysis of the cooperation processes is presented and a novel taxonomy is proposed for the classification of the coordination mechanisms for WSAN. In addition, some of the most representative coordination mechanisms published in the literature are summarized followed by a classification and a comparative analysis using the proposed taxonomy. Finally, some open issues within the scope of cooperative services are stated to provide a background for future WSAN research activities.
