A sensor network typiccaly 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.
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