In recent years, WSNs have been considered one of the most sensitive fields of research due to their widespread use in many important and critical applications. However, utilizing the full potential of this network is very hard due to numerous challenges. WSNs face a hurdle in collecting raw data since most of the transmitted data from the sensor nodes to the base station are redundant and lead in many cases to reduce the overall performance of the network. Therefore, a key research challenge has been the study of data aggregation strategy for reducing the number of data transmissions by eliminating redundant data and hence improving the overall network performance. This paper is divided into third parts. Firstly, we discussed the various challenges associated with data aggregation for WSNs. Secondly, we have classified the applications into basic classes and provided a broad overview of significant applications. Finally, we tried to summarize the required features that sensor networks should have for each type of application like range communication, reliability, security, robust node, and network tolerance.
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