The advances in the fields of semiconductor devices and large scale transistor integration coupled with the development of high speed broadband wireless technologies such as MIMO-OFDM have led to the birth of Wireless sensor networks (WSN). Envisioned as the bridge between the modern broadband packet data networks and the physical world, WSNs have made possible real-time data aggregati on and analysis on an unprecedented scale. Naturally, they have attracted the attention and garnered wide spread appeal towards applications in diverse areas such as disaster warning systems, crop/ environment monitoring, health care, safety and strategic areas such as defense reconnaissance, surveillance, intruder detection etc. However, WSNs pose unique challenges towards successful design and implementation of pervasive sensing networks. On the one hand ensuring sensor data integrity over the error prone fading wireless channels is a substantial hindrance, especially in the context of energy constrained wireless sensor nodes. On the other hand, aggregation and analysis of massive data sets is logistically complex in such large scale WSNs. Further, topology management and route discovery hold the key to robust WSN deployment for military applications.

WSNs necessitate the development of innovative algorithms for power management, sensor communication, ranging, localization, distributed processing and dynamic routing. Beginning with an introduction to the foundations and background of WSNs, this course is expected to cover the research aspects necessary for WSN deployment. Broadly characterized into the PHY, MAC and Network layers of the standard WSN, the program modules are designed to specialize in individual WSN focus areas such as sensor data fusion, topology optimization, distributed estimation and detection, shortest path routing, optimal power management policies amongst others. A WSN demonstration session towards the end provides practical exposure to WSN technology.