Survey on Motes Used in Wireless Sensor Networks: Performance & Parametric Analysis

Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) are used to sense certain parameters in an environment, manipulate the acquired data and transmit/receive the information in an intra or inter communication network. Innovative researches in WSNs have resulted in the increase of application scenarios, which, at a time instant, were not even well-thought-of to be automated by WSNs. With this advent, it becomes necessary to customize sensor nodes depending on node specific characteristics and the deployment environment. Challenges for designing a WSN depend on the scenario in which it is implemented. Commercially available wireless motes are mostly generalized for usage in most of the applications. This survey work aims to provide an insight on the various wireless motes available in the market. This will enhance future researchers to select wireless modules which might be most suitable for their application needs. Various parameters related to the technical and implementation characteristics of WSNs were considered in this survey. This survey also concentrates with the survey on individual RF modules based on certain parameters like frequency of operation, transmission power, receiver sensitivity, interface mechanism, data rate, active, sleep & power-down current consumptions, range and cost involved.