Redundancy and Synchronisation Management in Mission- and Time-Critical Wireless Sensor Networks

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) are a technology that has been increasingly adopted thanks to their ability to inexpensively and safely gather information in difficult-to-access environments. Because of this they are an invaluable tool to gather knowledge about health, usage, and performance parameters of products in any environment as well as identify the onset of, and avoid or mitigate, catastrophic failures. This chapter will introduce the benefits that WSNs can bring to the process of knowledge management for the development and maintenance of products as well as discuss emerging research trends regarding two prominent concerns inher-ent to WSNs: redundancy management and synchronisation. After reviewing these results, their impact and applicability to mission-critical applications will be discussed, as well as the interaction between the solutions.