Wireless Sensor Networks 2009-2019

Friday, Nov 14, 2008

The dream is to automatically monitor and respond to forest fires, avalanches, hurricanes, faults in country wide utility equipment, traffic, hospitals and much more over wide areas and with billions of sensors. It will become possible thanks to Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) otherwise known as Ubiquitous Sensor Networks (USN).

This article shares some of the research carried out for the new IDTechEx report ""Wireless Sensor Networks 2009-2019"" www.idtechex.com. WSN can assist with many of the big issues of this century including security, safety, protecting the environment, animal and plant conservation, healthcare and efficient food production for example. Meanwhile, 99% of sensors installed in the world are still wired and, over the next ten years, WSN will constitute no more than ten percent of the wireless sensors that are sold, mainly because of technical challenges.

There is much to go for. WSN already beats the wired alternative with 90% reduction in cost, even at current prices, and often WSN enables things to be done that are otherwise impossible. Little wonder that hundreds of research centers are pursuing the subject and there are already well over 100 suppliers of this or that part of the jigsaw puzzle. An early objective for most schemes is wireless replacing all or almost all wiring, not just power and not just control.