Abstract:

This paper firstly introduces the present situation of wireless sensor networks in brief, mainly focuses on discussing fault-tolerant relevant topics  such as features, requirements and solutions of wireless sensor networks, and then summarizes the fault-tolerant problems and techniques for wireless sensor networks at different abstract levels such as the physical layer, the link layer, the network layer, the transport layer and the application layer.   Furthermore, the details of different kinds of fault-tolerant techniques are explained and an overview of the progress made in this research field is p  rovided. The summary of all the fault-tolerant techniques helps to find new methods or directions for future research.

Key words: wireless computing, wireless sensor network, fault-tolerant