Multi-layer network architecture for supporting multiple applications in wireless sensor networks

Traditionally wireless sensor networks’ deployment is meant for a single application, which limits the commercial deployment of a sensor network. In many scenarios, however, it has become desirable to use a sensor network to run multiple applications where the demand for applications that can harness the capabilities of a sensor-rich environment increases. With advancements in sensor technology the size and cost of a sensor node have reduced significantly allowing a large number of resource-constrained sensor nodes be deployed to form a dense network. In order to exploit the dense nature of wireless sensor network by utilizing the available redundant nodes, we propose network architecture made up of three layers, each of which has an equal number of subscribed sets of nodes. An active layer represents the execution of set of nodes running one application. The proposed network architecture to run three applications is designed based on the implementation of scheduling using directed acyclic graph (DAG). The experimental results obtained through Castalia simulation show successful execution of the architecture while maintaining energy efficiency.