Space Based Wireless Sensor Network: A Survey

In the recent years, the advancement in the technology has increased the need for earth observation, space exploration and Multimedia applications. Single huge satellite was used to meet application mission. This results in significant design complexity, where probability of functional fault is high, resulting in failure of the entire system. Other issue is the restriction on the amount of mass that is permitted to be put in the orbit. This avoids space debris caused due to satellite failure. The recent survey believes that space propulsion can no more support physical limitation of single large spacecraft. To reduce the impact of single large satellite, small distributed satellites are used in space [2] [3]. A significant breakthrough in terrestrial wireless sensor network has motivated to extend WSN to space applications as well. Here small satellites refer as nodes. The group of small satellites work collaboratively to form a distributed network very similar to WSN. This distributed structure of satellites forms Space Based Wireless Sensor Network (SBWSN). The capabilities and challenges of SBWSN with respect to launch mechanism, topology formation, communication protocols, routing protocols in stringent space environment are discussed.