A sensor network typically consists of a number of sensor nodes
which each acquire signals from a sensor or multiple sensors and
a system to transmit and process the data acquired from sensors.
The sensor nodes can communicate the data within one another or
to a centralized location over a wired or wireless network. The
sensor network can thus be classified as a data acquisition
network and data distribution network. The data acquisition
system typically consists of sensors and circuitry to handle the
real-world information available and the data distribution
network involves the communication protocols, network topology,
and methodology to transmit and handle the data. The basic
network topologies used are star, ring, bus, and mesh, as shown
in figure 1. Figure 1: Various network topologies. The choice of
the sensor network topology depends upon the application and the
kind of processing and data handling required. The need for
improving connectivity from PCs to the real world is gaining
momentum. There are