Multicast Communication in Wireless Sensor and Actor Networks

This work is about Wireless Sensor and Actor Networks (WSANs) consist of a large number of heterogeneous nodes known as sensors and actors. Sensor nodes have lower cost, lower power, multifunctional devices that can communicate untethered in limited distances, while actor nodes are resource rich, having higher processing and transmission capabilities, equipped with additional devices and longer battery life, they collect and process sensed data and perform the appropriate actions on the environment. In WSANs, the distributed sensing of a physical phenomenon is possible with the collaborative operation of the sensor nodes. Whenever a sensor node detects an event in the deployment region like fire, earth quake, etc the event information is transmitted to the actor nodes. The actors gather, process, and take a prompt decision to react. WSANs are distributed control systems usually designed for a quick response to sensed information with an effective and timely action. For this purpose it is essential to provide a real time communication and coordination framework to ensure prompt execution of action at right location.