ABSTRACT
This chapter considers the foundations of cognitive wireless sensor networks (WSNs) and their architectures. It discusses several approaches in implementing cognition in WSNs. Cognition refers to the ability to be aware of the environment, learn from past actions, and use that information to make future decisions that benefit the network. The medium access control (MAC) and network (NWK) layers together provide information about the network status. All this information from the NWK and MAC layers will be very useful in cognitive decision-making. The tools of artificial intelligence and cognitive techniques of representation, learning, and reasoning were believed to be best suited to achieve the complex objectives of the knowledge plane as opposed to traditional algorithmic approaches. Configurable network elements formed the action elements of the cognitive process. The knowledge base is the storehouse of information in the cognitive node.
