Advantages of WSN | disadvantages of WSN
This page covers advantages and disadvantages of WSN (Wireless Sensor Network). It mentions benefits or advantages of WSN and drawbacks or disadvantages of WSN.
What is WSN?
The WSN (Wireless Sensor Network) consists of end sensor nodes, routing nodes and base station or data collector sink node (or base station or gateway). The WSN should be scalable and secure to deliver efficient and reliable network.

The WSN can be classified based on network type, clustering, communication method, protocol, application usage and coverage.
WSN consists of spatially distributed autonomous sensing devices used to monitor physical or environmental conditions such as temperature, pressure, sound, vibration, motion or pollutants at different locations. All the nodes communicate wirelessly in WSN and follows various routing protocols. WSN operates in bandwidth and performance constrained environment. WSNs are self organizing multi-hop ad hoc networks.


There are mainly two categories of WSN viz. stationary WSN and mobile WSN. Refer article on WSN >> for more information.
Benefits or advantages of WSN
Following are the benefits or advantages of WSN:
➨It is scalable and hence can accommodate any new nodes or
devices at any time.
➨It is flexible and hence open to physical partitions.
➨All the WSN nodes can be accessed through centralized montoring system.
➨As it is wireless in nature, it does not require wires or cables.
Refer difference between wired network vs wireless network.
➨WSNs can be applied on large scale and in various domains
such as mines, healthcare, surveillance, agriculture etc.
➨It uses different security algorithms as per underlying
wireless technologies and hence provide reliable network for consumers or users.
Drawbacks or disadvantages of WSN
Following are the drawbacks or disadvantages of WSN:
➨As it is wireless in nature, it is prone to hacking by hackers.
➨It can not be used for high speed communication as it is designed for low speed applications.
➨It is expensive to build such network and hence can not be affordable by all.
➨There are various challenges to be considered in WSN such as energy efficiency, limited bandwidth,
node costs, deployment model, Software/hardware design constraints and so on.
➨In star topology based WSN, failure of central node leads to whole network shutdown.
Conclusion: WSN follows different topologies such as star, tree, mesh, hybrid etc. Hence one can understand pros and cons of these topologies to derive advantages of WSN and disadvantages of WSN. Moreover WSN uses different underlying wireless technologies. Hence one can also refer advantages and disadvantages of Zigbee, Z-wave, WiFi, and WiFi6 etc.
Advantages and Disadvantages of other Sensor Types
Advantages and Disadvantages of other wireless technologies
What is Difference between
difference between OFDM and OFDMA
Difference between SC-FDMA and OFDM
Difference between SISO and MIMO
Difference between TDD and FDD
FDMA vs TDMA vs CDMA
FDM vs TDM
CDMA vs GSM