A Wireless Sensor Networks for IoT and 6G: An Analysis of Intelligence and Energy Efficiency

Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) have emerged as a core technology for making intelligent environments available in healthcare monitoring, smart cities, industrial automation, and environmental monitoring applications. Increasing pressure for low-power, autonomous sensing systems and the explosive growth in Internet-of-Things (IoT) connected devices with corresponding pressure to improve the energy efficiency of WSNs make WSN architectures smarter and more energy-friendly. In addition, the development of next-generation paradigms of communication like 6G imposes new challenges as well as prospects for WSN integration. Intelligent and efficient WSN is the goal to be achieved while this survey takes into consideration innovation in system structure, communication, energy harvesting technology, and adoption of artificial intelligence and machine learning at the edge. The aim is to synthesize and critically review the state-of-the-art currently and determine gaps and possible areas of future work. Major challenges like energy limitations, secure data communication, interoperability, and scalability are examined in relation to contemporary application requirements. The originality of this work is that it has a holistic and futuristic approach, in which WSNs are studied not only in conventional applications but also in new areas motivated by smart decision-making and cross-layer optimization techniques. Moreover, this survey addresses the integration of WSNs with blockchain, edge computing, and green energy systems, providing insights into how these technologies together determine the future of autonomous sensor networks in the IoT and 6G era.