An Overview of Wireless Sensor Networks Applications and Security

Wireless communication technologies continue to undergo rapid advancement. In recent years, there has been a steep growth in research in the area of wireless sensor networks (WSNs). In WSNs, communication takes place with the help of spatially distributed, autonomous sensor nodes equipped to sense specific information. WSNs can be found in a variety of both military and civilian applications worldwide. Examples include detecting enemy intrusion on the battlefield, object tracking, habitat monitoring, patient monitoring and fire detection. Sensor networks are emerging as an attractive technology with great promise for the future. However, challenges remain to be addressed in issues relating to coverage and deployment, scalability, quality-of-service, size, computational power, energy efficiency and security. This paper presents an overview of the different applications of the wireless sensor networks and various security related issues in WSNs.