Mobile agents assisted data collection in wireless sensor networks utilizing ZigBee technology

Abstract

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) are being utilized widely in many different industries, including agriculture, medicine, and the military. They contain many distributed sensors to monitor physical or environmental factors, such as temperature, humidity, pressure, etc. and use various communication technologies, including WiFi, radio frequency (RF), Bluetooth, and ZigBee. ZigBee is always a preferred choice for applications in WSNs. ZigBee has remarkable capabilities, such as saving energy and transmitting data over long distances. ZigBee end devices, as well as a ZigBee coordinator (ZC) and a ZigBee router (ZR), are crucial components of the WSNs. This article discusses the fundamentals of the ZigBee network, one of the most popular data transmission technologies in wireless sensor networks (WSNs). Additionally, we want to discuss the ZigBee communication technologies and their applications, particularly in the networks. Different scenarios for mobile agents including their routing protocols in WSNs are considered. Simulation results of different scenarios demonstrate how easily scalability can be achieved and provide a foundation for further ZigBee application development. At last, some conclusions and ideas are presented for considerations.