The eld of wireless sensor networks continues to evolve and grow in both practical and research domains. More and more wireless sensor networks are being used to gather information in real life applications. It is common to see how this technology is being applied in irrigation systems, intelligent buildings, bridges, security mec- nisms,militaryoperations,transportation-relatedapplications,etc.Atthesametime, new developments in hardware, software, and communication technologies are - panding these possibilities. As in any other technology, research brings new dev- opments and re nements and continuous improvements of current approaches that push the technology even further. Looking toward the future, the technology seems even more promising in two directions. First, a few years from now more powerful wireless sensor devices will be available, and wireless sensor networks will have applicability in an endless number of scenarios, as they will be able to handle traf c loads not possible today, make more computations, store more data, and live longer because of better energy sources. Second,a few years from now, the opposite scenario might also be possible. The availability of very constrained, nanotechnology-made wireless sensor devices will bring a whole new world of applications, as they will be able to operate in - vironments and places unimaginable today. These two scenarios, at the same time, will both bring new research challenges that are always welcome to researchers.
Topology Control in Wireless Sensor Networks addresses the need for a text that combines the background material needed to understand wireless sensor networks with in-depth material about topology control, which is a very important topic related to this technology; and a companion simulation tool of great value for instructors and researchers.
Topology Control in Wireless Sensor Networks is a self-contained text for practitioners, engineers, students, professors, and researchers. The first six chapters contain general information about wireless sensor networks and its applications as well as a thorough but concrete description of the most important issues, design guidelines, and available protocols and algorithms utilized at the Physical, MAC, Network, and Transport Layers of the communication protocol stack. In addition, this first part of the book introduces the reader to the concept of topology control, which is expanded to include, for the first time, topology construction and topology maintenance techniques. Parts II and III are devoted to the description and evaluation of topology construction and topology maintenance techniques, providing detailed descriptions of the most important techniques and their effectiveness in their goal to enhance the overall lifetime of wireless sensor networks. Finally, the appendix includes a description of Atarraya, an event-driven simulation tool, designed for teaching and researching topology control algorithms for wireless sensor networks.
