**2.2 Addressing**

In a front-end proxy solution, the base station needs to have the capability to enable interoperability between WSNs and the Internet. In the second case, the base station has to perform the task of an application layer gateway. It needs to be compatible with internet protocol as well as the WSNs protocol. In the third approach where the node can directly connect with the internet, means the sensor node needs to have direct IP addresses. It is indeed difficult to run standard internet protocol on to the sensor node having limited resources due to following reasons.

i. Deployment: In internet devices are consider as fixed entity. Their physical location remains unchanged throughout the operation. Network administrator is well aware about the topology which is normally remaining fixed. In WSNs the sensor node deployed in the random manner in sensing field. Moreover, in many applications mobile sensor nodes are used. It implies that topology of sensor node are continuously changing.


It is very much clear that the addressing of WSNs and IoT is quite different. It is niche factor that decide the faithful operation of the WSNs and IoT's integration. It is utter most important to keep an eye on the topology change of WSNs [6–8].

#### **2.3 Protocols**

WSNs is designed for specific applications. Its protocols are tailored according to the specific requirements of the application and surrounding of the event area. Protocols are designed in such a way that it uses minimum information from the network to complete the task. The limited processing capacity and the energy of the node are the reason behind this. On the other side the IoT have the unlimited processing capacity and able to spend more energy in the communication. IoT deals with more broad aspect of applications and hence its protocol must be designed in such a way that it addresses the general aspects [9]. Integrating application specific protocol with the general protocol needs careful approach so that it maintains their endemic operation as well as the interoperability [1, 10].

#### **2.4 Node and data availability**

The core focus of WSNs is sensory data. It depends on the availability of the sensor node. WSNs are equipped with fewer resources especially power. To reduce the power usage, the node continuously switches to sleep mode from the active node and vice versa. In the worst situation, due to excessive usage of power node becomes dead. It implies that a particular part of the network is out of range. The sleeping node and dead node are not able to send the data and out of the topology. While we integrating the WSNs with the internet, the external host may not able to collect the data from the node due to the unavailability of the node. In addition to that, a malicious external host can attack a node in several ways i.e. generating the false or dummy data and saturate the node resources like a battery. So it is inevitable to devise a way that can assure the availability node and data correctly.

The mobility of the node in the sensor network is also an essential issue to be dealt with carefully. In many applications, the sensor nodes are continuously changing its position to collect the data. Moreover, WSNs also comes with a new data collecting approach called the mobile sink node. In that, the sink node travels through the network on a specified path to collect the data from the sensor nodes. Here the topology is continuously changed with the time which needs to be handling precisely while integrating with the internet [11].

#### **2.5 Hardware and technological issue**

A wireless sensor network is meant for specific applications. The sensor node has to provide specific data for as long as possible time with minimum resources. They use the low data rate communication to save the energy of the nodes. Moreover, the

**323**

**Figure 9.**

*Security attack on WSNs.*

*Challenges of WSNs in IoT*

**2.6 Security**

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.95352*

need to consider this point during the integration.

hardware is design to switch into active and sleep mode. The application for which it is going to be used and the protocol which is going to be implemented, they both

WSNs use Tiny OS as the operating system. Tiny OS is the event driven programming model instead of multithreading operation. On same platform other OS like LiteOS, Contiki and 6LoWPAN had be newly developed for WSNs. These OS designed in such a way that it enables the sensor node as and when an event occurs. During other time, sensor node remains in sleep mode to save the energy. Every sensor integrated with small 8 bit microcontroller or 64 bit microprocessor. They have limited data storage capability; typically the size of RAM is of few kilobytes. When WSNs node put open in front of the world, it is very much difficult for the WSNs node to cop up with multiple events and user at a time with its bounded resources.

WSNs node is not fundamentally secure [12]. They are deployed in the event prone area: either into the event or near to the event. It uses wireless channel for data transmission. Any malicious adversary can wield the node as per their malevolence intensity. Here we talked about the particular region of the WSNs but when we talked about the integration of the WSNs with the IoT, we open the access of the node to the world. IoT is very much vulnerable for the external attack [13–15]. Integration implies that now the WSNs node is also suffers from the same vulnerability as shown in **Figure 9**. The attacker would able to threaten the WSNs from anywhere in the world. Any malware from the internet can create an adverse effect on the functionality of the WSNs.

• Malicious Node Attack: In this type of attack, an attacker can create a malicious node among two nodes or more than two nodes as shown in **Figure 10**. Node A is sending some data to node B via node C. An Adversary first inserts the replica of node C into the network. This malicious node will alter the communication path between a sender and a receiver. Now the malicious node C can access all the data and can modify it for its malicious intense. The attacker can

• Sink Hole Attack: In a sink hole attack, an attacker first compromise one node in the sensor network and through that it propagate fake information about the routing information. By sending the fake routing information it attracts traffic from the network. Once it has access the data it can alter it or can drop some data. Moreover, it also increases the energy consumption in network

use multiple malicious nodes for this attack [16].

#### *Challenges of WSNs in IoT DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.95352*

hardware is design to switch into active and sleep mode. The application for which it is going to be used and the protocol which is going to be implemented, they both need to consider this point during the integration.

WSNs use Tiny OS as the operating system. Tiny OS is the event driven programming model instead of multithreading operation. On same platform other OS like LiteOS, Contiki and 6LoWPAN had be newly developed for WSNs. These OS designed in such a way that it enables the sensor node as and when an event occurs. During other time, sensor node remains in sleep mode to save the energy. Every sensor integrated with small 8 bit microcontroller or 64 bit microprocessor. They have limited data storage capability; typically the size of RAM is of few kilobytes. When WSNs node put open in front of the world, it is very much difficult for the WSNs node to cop up with multiple events and user at a time with its bounded resources.

### **2.6 Security**

*Wireless Sensor Networks - Design, Deployment and Applications*

causes excessive energy consumption at the node.

endemic operation as well as the interoperability [1, 10].

directly affects it topology.

**2.4 Node and data availability**

**2.3 Protocols**

ii. Vulnerability: Sensors are placed in the event prone area. It is possible that during the operation it might get damage due to any reason and leads to dead node. Moreover, excessive events results in excessive communication that

iii. Limited Resources: Sensor node has a limited energy. To enhance the energy utilization it continually changes its states from active mode to sleep mode and vice versa. In sleep mode the sensor node is virtually out of the network which

It is very much clear that the addressing of WSNs and IoT is quite different. It is niche factor that decide the faithful operation of the WSNs and IoT's integration. It is utter most important to keep an eye on the topology change of WSNs [6–8].

WSNs is designed for specific applications. Its protocols are tailored according to the specific requirements of the application and surrounding of the event area. Protocols are designed in such a way that it uses minimum information from the network to complete the task. The limited processing capacity and the energy of the node are the reason behind this. On the other side the IoT have the unlimited processing capacity and able to spend more energy in the communication. IoT deals with more broad aspect of applications and hence its protocol must be designed in such a way that it addresses the general aspects [9]. Integrating application specific protocol with the general protocol needs careful approach so that it maintains their

The core focus of WSNs is sensory data. It depends on the availability of the sensor node. WSNs are equipped with fewer resources especially power. To reduce the power usage, the node continuously switches to sleep mode from the active node and vice versa. In the worst situation, due to excessive usage of power node becomes dead. It implies that a particular part of the network is out of range. The sleeping node and dead node are not able to send the data and out of the topology. While we integrating the WSNs with the internet, the external host may not able to collect the data from the node due to the unavailability of the node. In addition to that, a malicious external host can attack a node in several ways i.e. generating the false or dummy data and saturate the node resources like a battery. So it is inevitable to

devise a way that can assure the availability node and data correctly.

dling precisely while integrating with the internet [11].

**2.5 Hardware and technological issue**

The mobility of the node in the sensor network is also an essential issue to be dealt with carefully. In many applications, the sensor nodes are continuously changing its position to collect the data. Moreover, WSNs also comes with a new data collecting approach called the mobile sink node. In that, the sink node travels through the network on a specified path to collect the data from the sensor nodes. Here the topology is continuously changed with the time which needs to be han-

A wireless sensor network is meant for specific applications. The sensor node has to provide specific data for as long as possible time with minimum resources. They use the low data rate communication to save the energy of the nodes. Moreover, the

**322**

WSNs node is not fundamentally secure [12]. They are deployed in the event prone area: either into the event or near to the event. It uses wireless channel for data transmission. Any malicious adversary can wield the node as per their malevolence intensity. Here we talked about the particular region of the WSNs but when we talked about the integration of the WSNs with the IoT, we open the access of the node to the world. IoT is very much vulnerable for the external attack [13–15]. Integration implies that now the WSNs node is also suffers from the same vulnerability as shown in **Figure 9**. The attacker would able to threaten the WSNs from anywhere in the world. Any malware from the internet can create an adverse effect on the functionality of the WSNs.


**Figure 9.** *Security attack on WSNs.*

by unnecessary communication. That is indeed a critical situation for energy scary network like WSNs (**Figure 11**).


One solution to that is WSNs must be protected by the powerful gateway. This solution is not feasible in the current infrastructure as it comes with scarce resources in the WSNs [17–20]. It is sheer essential to provide fundamental security measures to the sensor node while connecting to the internet [21]. We can use encryption techniques like symmetric key encryption model or public key encryption model for the communication. To implement the encryption model, it requires a secure key infrastructure that can provide a secure key for communication. It seems fascinating but it is a strenuous task to implement the encryption model in WSNs which comes with a large number of nodes. Moreover, it adds extra overhead to the communication which is an undesirable condition, especially with scarce

**325**

**Author details**

**3. Conclusion**

Brijesh Kundaliya

C S Patel Institute of Technology, CHARUSAT University, Changa, India

© 2020 The Author(s). Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium,

needs to tailor its layered operation so that it can be compatible with WSNs.

\*Address all correspondence to: kundaliyabrijesh@yahoo.com

provided the original work is properly cited.

*Challenges of WSNs in IoT*

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.95352*

between sleep mode and active mode [22].

resources. It is also required deliberate dealing with the switching of sensor node

defense organization only a limited person can access the data [23].

When a sensor node connects with any internet host (human or machine) the first task is to provide authentication to the user. Internet user must need to prove his identity that he/she is the right person who collects the data whereas node must need to assure that it offers it services to the right client. There are certain scenarios where the level of authorization varies with the user, i.e. a public space like a library where any user can access the data on the other side, in a private organization or in a

Another important aspect is to keep a record of communication to enhance security. The internet is full of the heterogeneous user. When we integrate WSNs with the internet, we are opening the doors of WSNs to heterogeneous users. They can access data as well as modifying the data. The internet has an abundant amount of resources. They can store the communication detail in a large server, but on the other side sensor node comes with limited resources. It is very much difficult for the sensor node to keep track of all the communication. Consequently, it is mandatory to find a mechanism to store that data either at the node or in a special server [5, 24].

Integration of IoT and WSNs enables the broad opportunity in almost every aspect of the life. The integration seems fascination at first look but it comes with unseen challenges. In WSNs, sensor node is equipped with very low resources in terms of hardware as well as software. Operating system of the sensor node has very low processing capacity and its operation is quite different from the internet node. Hardware of sensor node is designed in such way that it consumes less energy and comes in to active mode as and when any event happens. On the other hand IoT has no limitation either in processing capability or hardware compatibility. In the integration, the layered function of WSNs and IoT has to be tailored for the interoperability. Moreover, WSNs node needs to be updated to deal with the security attacks from the internet. Overall for the faithful integration WSNs has to upgrades it capacity and IoT

**Figure 11.** *Sink hole attack.*

#### *Challenges of WSNs in IoT DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.95352*

resources. It is also required deliberate dealing with the switching of sensor node between sleep mode and active mode [22].

When a sensor node connects with any internet host (human or machine) the first task is to provide authentication to the user. Internet user must need to prove his identity that he/she is the right person who collects the data whereas node must need to assure that it offers it services to the right client. There are certain scenarios where the level of authorization varies with the user, i.e. a public space like a library where any user can access the data on the other side, in a private organization or in a defense organization only a limited person can access the data [23].

Another important aspect is to keep a record of communication to enhance security. The internet is full of the heterogeneous user. When we integrate WSNs with the internet, we are opening the doors of WSNs to heterogeneous users. They can access data as well as modifying the data. The internet has an abundant amount of resources. They can store the communication detail in a large server, but on the other side sensor node comes with limited resources. It is very much difficult for the sensor node to keep track of all the communication. Consequently, it is mandatory to find a mechanism to store that data either at the node or in a special server [5, 24].
